Nothing wrong with the message, a lot wrong with the movie

Rating: Null/10 (5 December 2019)

Racism is wrong, it was wrong in the 70ies and still is wrong today. Sadly, the movie doesn't handle this matter in a masterful way. And the Academy was apparently willing to look over its issues and wasted potential.
First of all, it is a blaxploitation movie at heart and only its premise of a black cop infiltrating the KKK is factual. The rest is heavily fictionalized for its claim to be "based on true events". This could be justified if it would have elevated the material but I don't think that is the case.
Driver's acting was - as usual - very natural and likeable but he was not given space to shine to actually justify his Support Oscar nomination. There is one scene where he questions his own identity and the meaning of his Jewish heritage after he spent a long time as an undercover cop surrounded by antisemite Klan members. However, it is not quite tied in with the racism aspect and never concluded either.
Laura Harrier as black student leader Patrice Dumas was very one note and she was essentially reduced to love interest and assassination target.
A highlight were the phone conversations between John David Washington as black Detective Ron Stallworth and Topher Grace as David Duke, who surprisingly was portrayed very mannered. In contrast, most of the other characters felt like comical stereotypes. I assume it should create comedy how dumb KKK people are. Also, what was the point of them finding out that something's going on if it doesn't really create tension? In fact, pacing of the whole movie didn't create a lot of suspense.
The editing is slightly disjointed but okay, the soundtrack main theme is pretty good but repeats itself too often.
Then there is the issue that the movie could easily have ended 15 minutes earlier. The ending fails to naturally wrap up the story and instead they tacked on news footage of the 2017 Virginia events. The movie leaves you with a gut punch, which is fine, but there must have been a classier way to link that era to our times. Spike Lee assumed the audiences are a bunch of 5 year olds who need to be hit over the head with the political message.