Very Good

Rating: 8/10 (2 September 2018)

It's been a couple of weeks since I've seen this, and the thing that sticks in my mind after all that time is that it reminds me a little bit of a Quentin Tarantino film, though not as gleeful in its portrayal of violence. That by no means is a bad thing.
The film has a stylized feeling, it doesn't feel quite realistic, like a Tarantino film. For example in the way the main character spoke. I know that half the time he is trying to sound white, but even when he isn't pretending to be a white man, he had this annoying nasally white voice when he was being himself. Something about that struck me as not quite right.
It is a humorous film, but the humor seemed stylized - not quite natural. Again, it reminded me of Tarantino film in that way. Characters were archetypes. We have The dumb fat, but viscous racist who at first sight seems harmless. The smart, even more viscous racists who is very menacing. Then you have the white naive (or is he?) Klan leader, who plays the straight guy for all the gags. Very little goes into what makes these characters tick. Even the good guys' characters are not very well developed.
The film also kind of hits the viewer over the head with it's message, though it is an important one indeed. For the most part, police stations are integrated now. For the most part, people understand that the KKK are bad. Modern day race problems seem to be more intricate than those presented here. Even the closing, in which Lee ties in his move with current events, is kind of obvious. But it is beautifully done with a match cut that starts with a Klan rally and switches to the Alt-right rally in Virginia. it shows that maybe we shouldn't take those obvious problems I just mentioned above for granted.
I don't mind the stylized manner of this film and I even quite enjoyed it. This film is better than any Tarantino film, but I think the flaws I mention above keep the film from being a master piece. "Do the Right Thing" was a masterpiece.
A better film on race relations that is released about the same time as this one is "Blindspotting" - my favorite film of the summer so far. Be sure to check that one out, if you liked this.