BlacKkKlansman

BlacKKKlansman is a highly entertaining and thought-provoking movie from director Spike Lee.  John David Washington (son of Denzel) stars as Ron Stallworth, the first African American detective to join the Colorado Springs Police Department.  (The story of his actual life is pretty amazing). He is largely sidelined in menial positions until the Chief decides to give him an opportunity as an actual detective.  He teams up with Flip (Adam Driver) and Jimmy (Michael Buscemi), and basically on a whim, calls the local KKK.  He has several phone conversations with the local leader Walter (Ryan Eggold of “The Blacklist”) that lead him to ask his Chief if he could run an undercover operation.  After he talks his partners and Sergeant (Ken Garito) into it; he comes up with a scheme to infiltrate the local KKK.  While he talks on the phone with Walter, Flip actually meets the group and gains their confidence (except for one overly suspicious and creepy Klansman).  He and Flip succeed, and Flip is taken in by the group, who become convinced he is a like-minded recruit. Ron even convinces none other than KKK Grandmaster David Duke (Topher Grace) that he is a white redneck who wants to join the organization.  He also becomes emotionally involved with a black student leader who hates cops.  Once he reveals his cover to her, things get complicated.  The resolution of all the issues is fast paced and tense.  Both Washington and Driver are fantastic, with good support from the entire cast (including Ashlie Atkinson as a disurbingly submissive and racist wife of the suspicious Klansmen).  The issues examined in this movie are scary and disturbing, and no less timely now then they were at the time of the movie’s events.  Spike Lee delivers a great movie; although if you are a fan of President Trump, you will not like the way that he not-so-subtly juxtaposes what is going on in today’s America with Stallworth’s story.