BlacKkKlansman Review  4.5/5 stars

By Andrew Nelson

Spike Lee’s newest movie, BlacKkKlansman, tells the true story of Ron Stallworth, the first African American policeman and detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department. Stallworth was the main man behind the undercover investigation that took place in 1978-1979 into the local Ku Klux Klan chapter.

Stallworth saw a recruitment ad for the Klan in the local paper and decided to respond to the ad. But here’s where the story gets interesting: there are actually two Ron Stallworth’s in this operation. The actual Ron Stallworth (played by John David Washington) does the talking over the phone with Grand Wizard David Duke (Topher Grace), convincing him he’s a white American who hates black Americans and Flip Zimmerman (played by Adam Driver), who is a veteran cop in the force and is also Jewish which Stallworth uses to persuade Zimmerman to help with this investigation. He goes to the actual meetings and interacts with the other members of the chapter. David Duke eventually hears enough good stuff from Stallworth and decides to go out to Colorado Springs to meet him.

While all this is going on Ron Stallworth is sent to check out a black power rally where the speaker is Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins), an activist who talks to a crowd of black college students. There, Stallworth meets Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier), the president of the Black Student Union. He learns of her negative view on police and her push for equality.

As the movie progresses, viewers see the story unfold more with Stallworth having more and more phone conversations with David Duke and Zimmerman going to more meetings. However, one member is starting to become suspicious of Zimmerman. Felix Kendrickson (Jasper Pääkkönen) questions Zimmerman at almost every meeting, forcing him to almost take a lie detector test to make sure he only has “pure, Aryan blood.” Viewers also learn about Duke’s plan to run for office to help “take back the country.”

Overall, it is a great movie. The shots are constructed very well and the acting is outstanding, especially John David Washington in his role as Ron Stallworth and Jasper Pääkkönen in his role as Felix Kendrickson. There is quite a bit of comedy thrown into the film like in the opening scene with Dr. Kennebrew Beauregard (Alec Baldwin) as he delivers a white supremacy speech. The music is also very fitting for the scenes adding more to each one audibly. If given the chance, go see this movie; you will not regret it.