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John McCann says ‘BlackKklansman’ is a powerful feature from veteran director that may well be one of 2018’s finest features…
After enjoying the exploits of Denzel Washington last week in ‘Equalizer 2’ this week, it was the turn of Washington Jnr, John David Washington and Adam Driver in Spike Lee’s latest vehicle BlackKklansman to impress.
The movie, which deals with the true story of Ron Stallworth and his mission to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan, had me settled into my comfy seat at Tralee Omniplex in high anticipation of a feature that has already been gaining a lot of traction due to its powerful subject matter and modern day relevance.
BlackKklansman tells the incredible true story of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), the first African-American detective to serve in the Colorado Springs Police Department who bravely sets out on a dangerous mission: infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan.
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The young detective soon recruits a more experienced colleague, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), into the undercover investigation of a lifetime as they team up to take down the extremist hate group.
With many critics hailing this as the best Spike Lee movie in years and after a hefty diet of summer blockbusters, BlackKklansman was a feature that I was very excited to see, curious as to whether it would live up to the strong hype that had surrounded it.
Thankfully, the hype was well justified as Lee delivers a refreshingly original piece of film that contains the rarest of qualities – a film that has a strong message yet is also quite entertaining.
Lee combines a variety of film genres to entertain the viewer before delivering a gut punch of a final act that leaves its’ audience reeling at the drop of the final curtain.
The feature regularly switches in style from the buddy cop movies of the 1970’s to dark comedy to civil rights drama and finally social documentary which keeps the enthralled audiences on their toes throughout.
Commendable performances from John David Washington (who proves that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree), the ever dependable Adam Driver and Topher Grace help this feature along nicely, but it is director Spike Lee that delivers a film of real quality.
Not for the faint hearted and with strong language and violence throughout it is (purposely) a difficult watch at times, but in a sea of recent mediocrity BlackKlansman is a movie of that shines and may well go down as one of the best of the year!
4/5
• For more of John McCann’s movie reviews, check out his Facebook page here and website here
