BlacKkKlansman (2018)
Stars: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier
Runtime: 135 minutes
Synopsis: The true story of an African American detective that manages to infiltrate the KKK.
- Performances: 6/10
Why? Apart from Adam Driver's, who gave one of the bravest performances of his career and solidified his status as one of the best actors working today, I found the rest of the performances to be rather dull. The acting was definitely not bad, just unspecial and not exactly memorable. I didn't entirely buy John David Washington (the son of a certain Denzel Washington) in the lead role, nor his romance with Laura Harrier's character. The actors playing the KKK members worked well most of the time but were still portrayed in an over the top fashion in a lot of scenes.
- Screenplay: 7/10
Why? Spike Lee does a great job balancing humor and drama in a movie that deals with a very heavy subject. Set in the 1970s and centered around an African American character, he chose the blacksploitation era as his inspiration for the tone of the movie. A decision that paid off since it made "BlacKkKlansman" much more enjoyable and true to the time in which the story takes place. The dialogue written was also great and didn't hold back in the least, sometimes even shocking the audience with some sentences that would sparkle controversy nowadays if not handled with care. My main issue with the script, though, was with the characters. Some of them lacked development, and others were just plain caricature, making it hard to connect or care about them. I also had some issues with some subplots that I felt weren't as riveting as the main story and as a result held the movie back.
- Costumes/Makeup: 8/10
Why? They played a big part in making the movie look like blacksploitation film right out of the 1970s. The afro, the leather jacket, the pants... Everything looked authentic and I loved it.
- Editing: 6/10
Why? While I can't say that it affected my viewing experience much, I have to say that there were quite a bit of quick cuts. I also felt that the movie was about 15 minutes longer than it should've been, and that some subplots could've been considerably cut down. I did, however, enjoy some decisions taken in that field such as the use of a split-screen effect during phone conversations.
- Cinematography: 6/10
- Score/Soundtrack: 7/10
Why? A bit repetitive but overall not disappointing at all. It complemented well the tone of the movie without distracting us from what was happening on the screen.
FINAL GRADE: 7/10
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