The critics have hailed Spike Lee’s upcoming film “BlacKkKlansman” with tremendous accolades. The film now boasts a certified “Fresh” rating of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, with many outlets hailing it as Lee’s best in years.
“BlacKkKlansman” tells the wildly outrageous story about Colorado Springs detective Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), who successfully infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1970’s with the help of another detective who went undercover (Adam Driver).
“It was history written with lightning. BlaKkKlansman is a deafening roll of the thunder we’ve been waiting for ever since,” wrote David Ehrlich of IndieWire.
“Spike Lee’s new film empowers audiences to stand up for change. Talking isn’t enough; you must get up and do the right thing,” says Mara Reinstein of Us Weekly.
“‘BlacKkKlansman’ is quintessential Spike Lee, impassioned and messy and vital as anything he’s done in decades,” announced Steve Pond of TheWrap.
Many reviewers, of course, tied the events of the film to present-day America.
“A sobering Spike Lee Joint suggesting that the Klan might very well rise again, especially given equivocating President Trump’s frustrating refusal to take sides. Easily, Spike’s best offering in ages!” said Kam Williams of Sly Fox.
“Through its biting satire, Spike Lee’s ‘BlacKkKlansman’ dares to remind us that we are no stranger to the hatred in the present day,” said Danielle Solzman of Solzy at the Movies.
Spike Lee himself has made it known he wanted to tie the film in with President Trump. That impulse is implicitly made in one scene featured in the trailer where former KKK Grand Wizard gives a toast to his KKK comrades in the name of “America First.” The filmmaker has also said that Trump gave the “green light” to the KKK in the fallout over the Charlottesville protests.
According to James Dawson at The Federalist, Lee’s on-the-nose agenda with the film takes away from what should have been an otherwise powerful story about a black man standing up against white supremacists.
Dawson writes: “It’s unfortunate that ‘BlacKkKlansman’ overpowers the genuinely fascinating true story of Ron Stallworth, a black 1970s detective who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, with so much flagrantly fictionalized Hollywood hokum.”