Drags on a Bit - Some Very Good Performances

Rating: 6/10 (18 August 2018)

There is much to like about this film, but I only give it a 6/10, blaming most of the negative aspects on Spike Lee's direction. There are more than a few very good acting performances: Washington and Driver, and several of the Klansman, especially the husband-wife duo (especially when contrasted to the poor acting of the "bad cop" character). But Topher Grace as David Duke is a great, spot-on portrayal of the smarmy, "marketable" klansman David Duke.. I was less convinced by the love interest/student activist and her relationship with Washington's character. The film suffers from an identity crisis, not knowing whether to be a drama or a comedy. This would have been a better story to be made as dark comedy (maybe like "I, Tonya" (9/10)), or maybe an action, suspense drama. But instead it meanders throughout much of the film. When it's good, this film is superb, but there is much dead time in it. The long speeches greatly slow down the pacing of the film (and I'm NOT a person with a short cinematic attention span - I love "2001: A Space Odyssey" and the wedding scene in "The Deer Hunter"). A second long speech is a lost opportunity to build suspense. Lee tries but fails to build that suspense, with cinematic tools he should know how to use by now. Lee's attempts to tie the 70's Klan to Trump were forced and at times insulted the intelligence of the audience (Did he really think he had to repeat a Trump catch-phrase over and over and over . . . or we'd somehow be too stupid to get his point?). Factually,.this former Colorado Springs resident can accept (for cinematic reasons) moving the mostly flat city of Colorado Springs to the hills (Spike's city looks more like neighboring Manitou Springs). At least the Black Student Union sign was written in the correct Colorado College Colors. Go Tigers.