BlacKkKlansman

Literally... I have never been in a movie theater and said - Damn, I need to see every single movie in these trailers - until Monday. They showed the trailers for Widows, Monsters & Men, and If Beale Street Could Talk - that's right, the James Baldwin novel (the same one my dad tried to make me read when I was like 10 and I lied and said I did, and got smacked when I thought I could trick him into thinking I read it by just reading a paragraph here or there - memories.... Anyway, I'm so effing in those movies I might need protection - too much?). 

Back to the flick - I kid you not, BlacKkKlansman (or Black Klansman) is the most poignant and overall satisfying Spike Lee feature film since Malcolm X (and, arguably, Do the Right Thing) and I LOVED that Malcolm X flick - that was the first Oscar they stole from Denzel.

Usually, I don't do this, but I went and read some of the critiques of BlacKkKlansman online before I finalized my own review and I really don't understand some of these critics' issues with this film.  I mean, the nerve of some of these asshats.  Interestingly, a one of these so called fill buffs credited movies like Django and directors like Quentin Tarantino (notwithstanding that flick being pure fiction) for it's "historical accuracy" but only with respect to the use of the 'n-word.' Another of those clowns is giving Spike Lee crap about his fictionalizing of a true story because Spike takes liberties with whether the kkk actually hated a Jewish undercover cop (why, you ask, does this genius take issue with that? Well, because in the real life version of the story, there's no mention of whether the cop was Jewish...  Yup, so BlacKkKlansman missed the mark for that?) 

I'm looking at you real sideways and straight up Kevin Hart clapping as I say this @JamesDawson from The Federalist - 'You loved that Hateful Eight bullshorts, but couldn't stomach this... okay.  We don't believe you. You need more people.

VITALS
Spike Lee (if you don't know Spike's work... stop reading now and go grab a mirror and take a look at a dummy) - Writer/Director
Other Writing Credits got to - Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, and Kevin Wilmott
John David Washington (upcoming Monsters and Men and TV's Ballers) - Ron Stallworth
Adam Driver (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Frances Ha) - Flip Zimmerman
Laura Harrier (Spiderman; Homecoming) - Patrice Dumas
Topher Grace (Spider Man 3, Interstellar) - David Duke
Alec Baldwin (Glengarry Glen Ross, Boss Baby, Schweatty Balls Alec) - Dr. Kennebrew Beauregard
Michael Buscemi (who I totally thought was Steve for about 30 seconds... ) - Jimmy Creek
Robert John Burke (Miracle at St. Anna, Limitless, Safe) -
Isaiah Whitlock (who I think you all know better as Clay Davis from the Wire... you know... this guy

The rest of the notable cast includes Frederick Weller, Paul Walter Hauser, Damaris Lewis, and Corey Hawkins as Kwame Ture.

IF YOU MUST KNOW

Ron Stallworth, a college graduate joins the Colorado Springs Police Department. When hired, they call him the Jackie Robinson of the CSPD.  Stallworth has to endure the bigotry and racism of some of his fellow officers as he integrates that police department (I'm sure that never happens anymore), but like many of us... we know what we're getting into so racism doesn't phase us too much - we find ways to get back... Stallworth took the route of becoming one of the best detectives in the CPSD.  That's one way to go, I guess.

So, Spike takes us on this Officer Stallworth's journey as he initially tries to do the work he's assigned, but soon his desire to do something more substantial than retrieve files for men who lack moral character but are given badges and guns. Like most of us who have had to be the only vanilla bean in the vanilla ice cream (of an office, class, etc.), we just hope that what we're sacrificing ends up being worth it.

Spike, in true Spike fashion has some interesting scenes of straight speechifying.  For example, the scene where Stallworth is assigned to go undercover and ends up meeting the outspoken female President of the Black Student Union at an event where the controversial ex-panther, Stokley Carmichael/Kwame Ture is set to address the community.  His mission is to go wear a wire and listen to Ture, and gauge the crowd's reaction.  Would they be roused to violence?  With that "all power to all the people" business and "black power" and "black is beautiful" craziness, the police was concerned that he might encourage black folk. They could end up being proud to be black and therefore dangerously emboldened and whipped into a frenzy.  Black Panthers didn't walk around with dope tech, fresh handshakes, and screaming Wakanda Forever.  They walked around with pistols, shottys, and were versed in the gun laws of the local jurisdictions, the knew the Constitution, they fed hungry people, and - they were largely killed for it by the kkk and the some government sponsored "law enforcement."

But, I digress.  I'm starting to channel my Pops on this review.  Don't get me started.  I'm still vexed that there are idiots out there that think that it is even possible to be hyperbolic about the breadth of the kkk's racism and the lengths to which they still go to protect their deadly ideals.

Stallworth, after hearing the eloquent words of Ture, decides - on a lark - to give a call to the kkk.  Surprisingly, he gets a call back.  So, when he gets the go-ahead to take a look under the hood (pun intended) of the local kkk chapter, he is assigned a white partner because somebody had to do the meet up with the klan. Flip Zimmerman (interesting choice of last name to use in a film like this - all things considered) played by Adam Driver - who I genuinely dis-enjoy watching mess up my Star Wars movies, but was really good in this flick - is the white cop designated to stand in for the black cop who the kkk was interested in recruiting.

Alec Baldwin's amusingly disgusting racist rant was a lighthearted and interesting tone to set off the film.  Watching Topher Grace play David Duke... I mean, it's David Duke so you hate him, but then you love how much of an idiot he is, so... you kinda like him (and you can still kinda see that Forman face from That 70's Show). It's great casting (I know that might sound like shade, but I have nothing but respect for Topher - aside from his name... I can't cosign that, bro.  That's a choice.)

Yet, if you paid attention, there was a lot of seriousness to this movie.  That's what makes it a bit of a gem.  The speech by Kwame Ture (Hawkins) was one of the highlights of the film.  So was the fact that the Stallworth and his lady had their dramatic tension over the issue of whether you can change the system from inside the system.  I happen to agree with Stallworth, but it's damned near impossible.  And damn, that last convo with that long time kkk'er who a certain orange guy at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, DC claims to have not known anything about (although he really did!) was satisfying even if it never ever really happened.

If I say too much more about the things I like in BlacKkKlansman, you wouldn't have to see it.  And you really should go and see it.  It was smart. What else are you going to go out and see Octogenarian Secret Agents accepting impossible missions? If you're woke, you have to see this movie.  If you're not, you may well be afterwards.  You find yourself shaking your head and kissing your teeth at the historically consistent statements made in this Civil Rights Era- based film that are astoundingly relevant and echoed over, and over again today.  Stop me when this sounds familiar, kkk/white supremacist rallies in major towns, shouts of "America First" by idiots who think they're losing "their" country... There were some people that were visibly uncomfortable in that Brooklyn theater when they showed the Charlottesville footage in a clear juxtaposition of the fictionalized kkk versus the neo-nazis who showed up in Virginia last year.  That's the sign of a good movie people are disturbed by the fact that reality is just as bad as the fiction.  So, to the critics of BlacKkKlansman, I say - STFU ya might learn something.

No, it's not perfect.  But it is really good.  Really good.

IMTHATDUDE gives BlacKkKlansman: 4 

RATING SYSTEM:
5 = You should be about halfway to the theatre by now… Well… GET! 
4 = Definitely worth the bread. Niiice.
3 = I won’t cuss anybody out and demand my paper back.
2 = Somewhere SOUTH of under-whelmed./I know it has a pulse, but…
1 = Not a good look. They played me AND I played myself.

ASIDE:  Of course, this whole film had me thinking of this classic Chappelle joint -