• Spike, 61 years old at the time of release,  gives us his strongest effort since 2002’s The 25th Hour
  • Adore the shot reverse double-dolly close-up (very near the end after John David Washington and Laura Harrier decide to break up and look out of their window to see who is knocking). Spike has a ton of wonderful reoccurring visual and stylistic trademark and flourishes (we’ll get to the “wake up” and dutch angles below) but this one is certainly his signature shot.
Spike’s double-dolly signature shot
  • It’s a fabulously engaging narrative- the 135 minutes fly by
  • Spike has never been subtle- and I love it- he’s a bold filmmaker and auteur (and his visual style matches his content delivery)
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is blackkklansman-alkjdslfkajflkjl232323-1024x429.jpg
It’s a fabulously engaging narrative- the 135 minutes fly by
  • I struggled with the Corey Hawkins preaching scene the first time- too often in Spike’s films we catch him filming speeches (think of the endless soliloquy, literally sermonizing by John Cusack’s character in Chi-raq) but the gorgeous shots of adoring onlookers in the crowd–cropped out faces and floating heads at the 17 minute mark—Spike bounces the speech off variations of this shot at least 5X- strong sequence- won me over
gorgeous shots of adoring onlookers in the crowd–cropped out faces and floating heads at the 17 minute mark—Spike bounces the speech off variations of this shot at least 5X- strong sequence
  • It’s largely a cop movie- or even a buddy cop movie—one playing on the contrast of the background and differences in the two cops like Lethal Weapon or even better, 48 hours. But this genre has roots even back to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid–
  • There’s some Django here with the comedy in a socio-historical setting—Spike has chosen not only to make the two leads funny (Washington and Driver are great–affable) but the KKK members (aside from one- the horrifyingly unfunny Felix character) are largely funny, too. Topher Grace is a talented comedian as is Paul Walter Hauser from I, Tonya
  • Nods to pioneering and influential Blaxploitation films
  • Trump isn’t outright referenced until the end but there are nuanced nods along the way—Nixon and Reagan are a part of the film- Nixon posters/pictures especially in the mise-en-scene
  • Speaking of Nixon- several shots can’t help but recall All The President’s Men (and now Soderbergh and even Fincher using lighting as mise-en-scene)
  • Like the Rodney King footage to kick off Malcom X Spike here reframes the film at the end with real life doc footage (Charlottesville here). He starts the film with three openings: the Gone With the Wind , Baldwin’s fake documentary sequence, and then introduces Washington
  • Parallel editing sequence between Belafonte’s story and the KKK meeting- brilliantly editorializing through contrast
  • During the phone conversations between Topher Grace and John David Washington Spike often shoots them in canted frames. He’s such a genius, it’s like he knows so much of this film is an uncinematic set-up—two men talking on the phone– he uses film style to show the discord and peculiarities of wild situation/conversation
During the phone conversations between Topher Grace and John David Washington Spike often shoots them in canted frames. He’s such a genius, it’s like he knows so much of this film is an uncinematic set-up—two men talking on the phone– he uses film style to show the discord and peculiarities of wild situation/conversation
  • A strong score from frequent Spike collaborator Terence Blanchard
  • A standout shot late with the three men in front of the stain glass window at a low-angle
A standout shot late with the three men in front of the stain glass window at a low-angle
  • You have the “wake up” dialogue trademark in nearly all of Spike’s films
  • I love the romantic dance sequence set up by enjoyable stylistic filmmaking- the “too late to turn back now” by Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose—clearly Spike feels warmly towards the song, the 1970’s period and it comes through in the enthusiasm and detail
  • Highly Recommend- excellent auteur cinema