Yep, I see you: it did take me this long to watch BlacKkKlansman. But here’s the plot twist: up until recently, I was very big on writing and not so big on movies. Nowadays, I’m very big on movies, and average-sized on writing. (Aware that doesn’t make sense, but hopefully you catch what I mean by it).
Strangely though, even though I only recently got into movies on a more serious scale, BlacKkKlansman had been on my watch list for quite some time. After all, American history and politics are interesting topic for me, due to having a Bachelor of the Arts degree in that area. Nevertheless, even if you’re not as poncy as me, I have no doubt that there are hundreds of people who are interested in this sort of thing.
Halfway through this however, I regrettably found myself wanting to like it more. When I expected it to be a fast-paced Spike Lee shindig, this movie had a real slow first half, holding it back from being the highly praised piece that it has become. However, what I did appreciate was the way the movie harks back to the Blaxploitation sub-genre. Even the not-so-subtle shout outs to Pam Grier were done very well, and really made me want to give Foxy Brown a watch.
On a performance note, Adam Driver is becoming a force to be reckoned with. He has his finger in so many pies (Star Wars, Marriage Story and Paterson to name just a few) and he’s brilliant in every single addition to his filmography. Even though he seems to play a similar sort of average white dude – barring Kylo Ren, obviously – in almost everything, he manages to make each performance differently nuanced and it is so easy to appreciate if you know anything at all about acting.
BlacKkKlansman did pick up during its final act, but I’m afraid I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Again, that could be because of all the hype around it upon release, or maybe it’s just personal choice.
That said, one only has to take a look at the film’s closing sequences, which involve the incessant ”white power” marches that occur in present-day America, to notice how important a movie like this is. So for what it’s worth, it still gets a recommendation in my book.
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