Spike tackles - and puts out their fires....

Rating: 6/10 (26 January 2020)

Spike Lee is someone a generation has grown up with, and whether you love his work or note, it does definitely make you think and brings to the forefront issues of society, race & class, as well as opportunity. Sometimes very inciteful and educational (Jungle Fever & Do The Right Thing) but sometimes just crude political point scoring. This film seems to straddle between those two BUT more towards the first.
What we have is the unbelievable but true story in the 1970s of African American Ron Stallworth who infiltrated the far-right US movement. Working with his colleagues, over the course of the case he finds out their plans and works to stop them, is in a relationship with a young headstrong but politically engaged black women and is battling bureaucracy & bigotry in his own police department.
Despite the dark nature of the story, Spike Lee does a good job in plastering lots of comedy throughout to lighten the tone to make it all the more digestible for a wider audience than otherwise. Admittedly he is too biased in some ways, there are extremist elements on the African American who seem to get away without any questioning, whilst all in the are treated as cliched hill-billies whereas reality of late shows them to be far more serious than that. Don't get me wrong, the director & writer do a great job in tackling various subjects, and the main point is showing that bigotry can be defeated with action by people on the ground.
It's well filmed and entertaining, and (not a spoiler) i enjoyed a closing montage of recent political aspects. There are a number of themes of late that are important as the far-right globally has been taking a greater hold of the vote. This film won't answer the questions, but will help discussions to continue. That's the good point.
Must add that the cast as a whole is very watchable, including the omnipresent Adam Driver! Possibly the hardest working man in film today it seems.
It's a fine film (with some flaws), but still very watchable.