Lee's Black privilege fails to disguise heavy hand.

Rating: 3/10 (5 December 2018)

Spike Lee gets his shots in at the Klan in this lumbering repetitive tale of a black detective infiltrating the organization in BlacKkKlansman. One shot however is in his foot as he exposes himself for what he condemns.

Dan Stallworth is hired by the mostly lily white Colorado Springs Police Department where he chafes at the smug bias of officers in the records room. He requests a switch to detectives where he is given assignments to infiltrate the Black Panthers and KKK which finds him a love interest and getting up close with grand wizard David Duke, acting as his bodyguard during a visit. Eventually the dim witted Klan members put things together and plan a big hurt for Stallworth and his politically woke squeeze.

Poorly paced, haphazardly edited, Lee loosely attaches the plots of his storyline together without much rhythm or energy, his players (with the exception of some of his moronic goobers) lifeless dullards of sober demeanor that make every pregnant pause overdue. The entire cast looks like it could use some rest.

There are attempts by Lee to be au courant hip (it's Saturday Night's Live's Alec Baldwin! And how bout that title? ) and address today's racial tension with current news footage perhaps attempt to elevate this banal film's gravitas. But it cannot hide Lee's lifelong problem with pacing, packed on mostly with insipid dialogue and sermonizing displayed in abundance here with Lee's heavy handed juxtaposition.
Most revealing is Spike's handling of scenes from Birth of a Nation with its vile representation of virulent racist black faced northern pillagers. Given the absolute clueless imbeciles of the Klan and the casual bigotry of the boys in blue he presents in his film one might suggest Mr. Griffith has taught him well. A shame DW's artistic style never rubbed off on him. BlackkKlansman is a rambling bore.