A very forgettable affair

Rating: 5/10 (19 August 2018)

Someday, there will be a great movie made about this unbelievably true story. Unfortunately, this isn't that movie. Curiosity about this little known but interesting tale, and the relevance of the story to the times we live in, will bring the crowds in to watch the film. But other than these, the movie doesn't have much going for it. The screenplay, acting and direction were very average, and it is very likely that if this movie were made in more 'normal' times, the whole affair would be very forgettable.
Some positives were: I thought John David Washington (Ron Stallworth) and Adam Driver (Phil Zimmerman, aka white Ron Stallworth) acted well, and displayed good acting chemistry between them. The nightclub sequence with the dance played out well, and conveyed the racially charged yet simpler times of the 70s quite well. Topher Grace (David Duke) played the role well - his sophistication and polished language a sharp contrast to the rest of the simple and menial fools that make up the KKK in this film.
Other than these, the rest of the characters were pretty forgettable. The KKK and its member-characters do not deserve to be portrayed as more than one-dimensional shallow hicks in even the most thoughtful movie, and so that was fine. But somehow, they did not really convey the sense of dread and disgust they were supposed to, and came across more like villains more appropriate for a Dumb and Dumber than a film centered on a detestable sentiment like white supremacy. Secondly, the rest of the cast just seem like caricatures through the film, due to lazy writing that never really explores any possibilities with them. For instance, the wife of one of the clan members, Patrice (black student union president, and John's love interest through the film) and racist cops at the station - there were opportunities to make these characters more life-like and believable, but the movie squanders these roles. It also did not help that aside from Patrice, most of the smaller characters did not act well (especially the clan guys and said wife of one of the members).
The build-up and climax were disappointing, and while the movie invested a lot in building up towards the final scenes, the way it all winds down is pretty anti-climactic and incomplete. Again, lazy writing? Or was poetic justice not the point of the film (but then, what was?)
Lastly, it was disappointing to hear references to current times (e.g. David Duke saying 'it is time to really Make America Great Again' on the phone, references to how America while never elect a racist to the White House, etc.) as these seem like little more than cheap tricks in the overall scheme of things. And it was a bit of a cop out to end the film with footage from Charlottesville: Were we expected to indulge in a goofy story that never really did justice to the gravity of the topic at hand, and then suddenly flip to more serious emotions at the end when confronted with the truth? The movie, if done well, could have stood on its own, without requiring these gimmicks.