An intriguing story buried under political propaganda

Rating: 7/10 (13 August 2018)

When I first saw the trailer for this movie I was pleasently surprised. The movie appeared to have a lot of life to it and at the heart a great chemistry between John David Washington and Adam Driver, both of whom I am huge fans of.
Unfortunately, this movie was a really disappointing film that buried a really engaging story into a piece of propaganda with the intention of turning blacks against whites.
I gave this movie a decent rating because the strong parts are great, but we didn't get enough of them. As expected, Driver and Washington's chemistry was top notch, making me think and laugh time and time again. Even the side characters such as the other members of the police department added a fun, comedic element to the movie. The investigation was down well, but not enough of the focus was on it. Spike Lee took a really interesting story that I had never heard before and surrounded it with plain old bias.
My political views aside, all audience members, black, white... Christian, Muslim... Liberal or Conservative... should be able to join together at the movies to enjoy a film. However, as a white male, I felt like I shouldn't have been in the theater and no movie should make its audience feel that way. Film is an art and a form of expression, but it is also something that people are meant to enjoy and cherish with others. This film fails to capture all audiences but one.
Multiple political jokes and nods against the current administration in a movie set in the 70s felt jarring and took me out of it. Not to mention the forced propaganda placed at the end of the film, which did everything but straight up encourage a race war.
I wanted to love this movie. To me it doesn't matter what color skin or what religion an actor or actors is when determine which movies I see. All that matters is the story and this film had a good one, but other factors bring it down.