BlackKklansman

Reviews from Cannes for this were very positive.
John David Washington (Denzel’s son) plays Ron Stallworth, who along with colleague Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) infiltrated the KKK in the 1970s.

I’m really looking forward to seeing this. It opens here August 24, it’s released in the US on August 10 to coincide with the anniversary of Charlottesville.


https://youtu.be/pFc6I0rgmgY

AMKC

So anyone planning on going to see this movie? It has got very good reviews so far but there is supposed to be a lot of hard to watch scenes in it as well as some comedy. Have also heard it slams Trump which is great. Definitely considering going to watch it and I only found out about it today and it's a decent length too.

wp_rathead

Enjoyed it, definitely recommend it
At times was near a full out comedy, but then wham you'd find yourself in a scene straight from Mississippi Burning
The silence after the end scene in a packed cinema was deafening..

While the end montage of Charlottesville is probably going to be the most talked about moment, for me the most powerful scene was the contrast of the "White Power" chant and the "Black Power" chant when Duke monolgued about what the Klan stood for while watching "Birth of a Nation" and the elderly black activist described lynching of Jesse Washington which was inspired by that film..

Also

I see some people complaining about the scene where they wiretap the Racist Cop and get him fired.
My take on that is it's all fantasy- the scene before with the over the top celebrations made me go "nah", it is what Rod wished happened, and then when the chief came in when the cop got caught, it was all way too farfetched to be believable- almost as farfetched as cops
actually turning eachother in..

Victor

Excellent film. I was going to give it 4 out of 5, but then there are the last two scenes. 5 out of 5.

I really liked it. The whole cast is fantastic. Well worth a watch.

Mr E

Very good movie. During the last few frames, the cinema was so quiet you could hear people swallow uncomfortably.

yabadabado

I read the book a while back and really enjoyed it. Will head to cinema to see soon,good to hear it's getting good reviews.

The Crowman

AMKC wrote: »

So anyone planning on going to see this movie? It has got very good reviews so far but there is supposed to be a lot of hard to watch scenes in it as well as some comedy. Have also heard it slams Trump which is great. Definitely considering going to watch it and I only found out about it today and it's a decent length too.

Isn't it set in the 70's?

nim1bdeh38l2cw

The Crowman wrote: »

Isn't it set in the 70's?

The orangutan was around then too.

The Crowman

The Crowman wrote: »

Isn't it set in the 70's?

The narrative from then matches today’s.

AMKC

The Crowman wrote: »

Isn't it set in the 70's?

Yes it is but I think it makes fun of the current politics in America at the moment too.

Victor

AMKC wrote: »

Yes it is but I think it makes fun of the current politics in America at the moment too.

Because it is the same politics.

Mr E

One of the Klan members mentions making America great again.

Victor

Mr E wrote: »

One of the Klan members mentions making America great again.

Not a new slogan.

AMKC

Victor wrote: »

Not a new slogan.

Was Bush Vice President to Ronald Reagan?

yabadabado

AMKC wrote: »

Was Bush Vice President to Ronald Reagan?

Both terms and succedded him .

AMKC

yabadabado wrote: »

Both terms and succedded him .

That's the way to do it. Must have been a good President. Certainly better than the buffoon that is there now.

johnny_ultimate

Quite dug this, although there was something a tad off about the tone that left me cold at times... basically, don’t think it actually totally landed the comedic side of the material, a few chuckles aside. Worked better as a drama. It’s not a subtle film - as alluded to above, the comparisons to contemporary America are very much worn on its sleeve - but Spike Lee has never dealt in subtlety

Chi-Raq was an interesting and often pretty effective film, but oddly I think Lee (at least after his early classics) is more confident when it feels like he’s adapating someone else’s material rather than going full, hyper-indulgent Spike Lee. This is a good example: despite the racially loaded subject matter that allows it to fit snugly into the man’s filmography, it definitely comes across as material that was brought to the director, and he’s managed to bring just the right amount of his own personality to it. Like Inside Man and 25th Hour, this isn’t necessarily the prototypical Lee joint (even if it is more in tune with his most famous work that those two films) but is actually the better for it.

Surprisingly gorgeous film to look at, with some beautiful 35mm framing suited to the material and time period. Some standout flourishes scattered throughout - the in-awe reaction shots of the crowd during the rally near the beginning; an effortlessly slick and sexy dance scene; a super shot near the end that feels giddily ripped out of a blacksploitation cop film.

Also: I said it when I saw the trailer, but casting Topher Grace as David Duke is totally inspired - there’s something naturally goofy about Grace’s demeanour that shows Duke up as the miserable, ghoulish figure that he is.

Beechwoodspark

Big spike Lee fan here. Was really looking forward to this but it was a bit of a let down. The tone was jarring and seemed to be all over the place.

Playing for laughs one minute then trying to be ultra serious in the next scene. The script went through a lot of redrafts and it shows.

Thought a few ppl were miscast. Adam driver phoned it in.

David duke guy was also poor I felt. And the wife of the kkk guy. Not great.

The lead was good. Denzel Washington’s son I believe?

The guy who played the wackjob KKK man (2nd in command) was very good. Real sense of menace.

It seems it is a heavily fictionalised version of the true story of what happened. There’s a bit of a controversy going on about that online.

The dolly shot -spike’s trademark-stood out a mile and imho didn’t work well.

Music was decent.

Overall a little disappointing considering it was awarded the Palme dor. I’d give it maybe 3/5

heebusjeebus

Tone was all over the place but I really enjoyed it.
Last scene was harrowing too.

Loved the Clay Davis cameo.

Water John

Haven't seen it but the critic in the Irish Examiner gave it 5 stars.

theteal

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

The lead was good. Denzel Washington’s son I believe?

That’s who he is, thank you, I couldn’t quite put my finger on why he was familiar. He’s plays one of the main characters in Ballers.

I’ve not seen this film yet. I was in Ireland last week and the ad campaign for this is fairly relentless

Easy Rod

I enjoyed it and the last scene and the black power/white power scene were incredibly powerful but it just felt a bit ‘off’ at times. Scenes seemed to jump all over the place and didn’t really flow into each other or make sense, especially towards the end with David Duke in town.

homerun_homer

I enjoyed this but didn't think it was quite as amazing a film as reviews have built it up to be. I'd avoided trailers going in, and though I knew it would be funny, I would agree with comments about it tonally being a bit of a mixed bag.

The scenes where the tension is there are quickly released which I found frustrating as they had more potential,

the lie detector scene

for instance.

Spike Lee certainly didn't use subtlety in this, which I found came across a bit like "racism for dummies", or even "comparing Trump & modern politics to the KKK for dummies". That's fine if that is Spike's clear intention, but it was very on the nose, which is maybe what America needs, yet how many Trump voters would bother with this film?

The soundtrack was going great but then the original score kicks in, and it was off and very repetitive. The reverbed guitar solos felt more at home with a bad 80/90s cop movie, where the cop is drowning his sorrows over a bottle of whiskey, or a terribly shot love scene.

I expected a little more from Topher Grace and how David Duke was portrayed as all I'd seen leading up to the film was a bit of his Seth Meyers appearance. He says he prepared for a month, reading his biography, watching all videos of him and getting into a real dark place. That does not come across in the movie. The film screams of there being a longer edit, but this is what we got.

The use of certain visual styles were cool, but then frustrating in their lack of consistency and when they are used. The final pan looks cool, but didn't work for me in between the way the scene led up to it, and what comes after.

The last 'scene' or montage was very effective, and really hits home what was already obvious. I'm not quite sure that it completely works when added right onto the end of the film but it definitely works in leaving you silent as the credits roll.

Victor

homerun_homer wrote: »

Spike Lee certainly didn't use subtlety in this, which I found came across a bit like "racism for dummies", or even "comparing Trump & modern politics to the KKK for dummies".

As I mentioned: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=107890006&postcount=14 the content is not new. The film reflects on the 1860s, the 1910s, the 1970s and the 2010s - the details are different, but the themes are the same.

That's fine if that is Spike's clear intention, but it was very on the nose, which is maybe what America needs, yet how many Trump voters would bother with this film?

I don't think such people are the target audience. I think the targets are victims of bigotry and the middle ground who can be persuaded.

Smegging hell

wp_rathead wrote: »

Also

I see some people complaining about the scene where they wiretap the Racist Cop and get him fired.
My take on that is it's all fantasy- the scene before with the over the top celebrations made me go "nah", it is what Rod wished happened, and then when the chief came in when the cop got caught, it was all way too farfetched to be believable- almost as farfetched as cops
actually turning eachother in..

Enjoyed the film but I found that scene jarring and out of place.

expectationlost

confused by the marketing of this as black man going undercover in the kkk when its adam driver that goes undercover

AMKC

So not long back from seeing this and have to say I thought it was very good. The beginning and the end had me very angry. I did not think there was much humour in it only a small bit. Found it all quite serious mostly. There is a lot of racism in it. I stuck my finger up at the baffoon when he showed him on it. I think even do I had seen them already do that it was the scenes at the end that made me most angry. We should be by things like that now at least in the western world anyway. He makes me angry when we go backwards as a race instead of moving forwards.
It was good to see the cinema was quite full. I was quite surprised by that.There was a good few young people in the cinema too.

JP Liz V1

yabadabado wrote: »

I read the book a while back and really enjoyed it. Will head to cinema to see soon,good to hear it's getting good reviews.

Is this based on a true story

yabadabado

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Is this based on a true story

It is .I've no idea how faithful it is to the book.

mikhail

expectationlost wrote: »

confused by the marketing of this as black man going undercover in the kk when its adam driver that goes undercover

This is fairly generic information, but since the movie is new I'll spoiler tag it.

He makes the initial contact, and continues to speak to them by phone. A white colleague does the face to face meetings.

yabadabado wrote: »

It is .I've no idea how faithful it is to the book.

I've heard it takes a few liberties, but if the man's wikipedia page hasn't been distorted by the movie (it only appeared in May), then the broad strokes are consistent.