John David Washington (son of Denzel, if you weren't already aware) plays Stallworth, sporting a great afro and the ability to codeswitch between talking "jive" with his 70s brothers and sisters when he's undercover and then speaking the "King's English" when he's dealing with his white police colleagues. He teams up with a Jewish detective, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver at his best), to play the "white" Ron Stallworth at Klan meetings, while Ron will continue to talk to the various members on the phone and infiltrate their ranks. Obviously this is taking the buddy cop storyline to the extreme and it is extremely funny to watch how Zimmerman and Stallworth work with each other to sound more alike and get their stories straight. Which makes for a very entertaining first half of the film.
However, as the movie progresses, you are gradually reminded that as absurd and hilarious as this premise might be, we're still dealing with the Klan, a virulently racist and hateful group of men and women. Zimmerman is put into danger more than once by antisemitic Klan members, and as their operation goes deeper into the KKK, the stakes get much more higher. Yes, at first it is great to laugh when Stallworth manages to call up David Duke (played by Topher Grace who looks EERILY like Duke in the 70s), and hear him explain how he knows Stallworth's white because he doesn't pronounce the word "are" like a black man would. But sadly, that's just the tip of the racist iceberg.
The pacing of this film is a bit odd - the scenes are long and languid at the beginning, taking their time to set up the plot and the characters and steep you in the two different worlds Stallworth has to inhabit on a daily basis. But things pick up steam towards the end, moving quickly and tying up a lot of loose ends in extravagantly Hollywood fashion. Which is worth it, because you do want to celebrate the extraordinary work that Stallworth accomplished. But don't start feeling too good, because this movie ends on a shockingly sobering note. I won't give it away here but suffice to say, there was a woman loudly sobbing in the theater when the end credits started to roll and the rest of the audience were deadly silent. I remember sobbing last year when I saw the events that unfolded on the screen, so don't expect to feel terribly uplifted when you leave the theater. But it's still an excellent history lesson that will burn itself into your brain.
BlacKkKlansman is a thought-provoking and well-crafted movie, brimming with excellent performances, a brilliant soundtrack, production design that immerses you in the 70s, and a story that is so unbelievable it has to be true. It tackles the history of white supremacy and black power in the United States, and while it discusses these themes in the context of the 70s, it eventually makes it clear that this history hits a little too close to home in 2018. Watch this movie and get righteously angry. Then come up with a plan for what we're going to do so history can stop repeating itself.
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