Review #1,427: 'BlacKkKlansman' (2018)

Although he is still producing an impressive body of work, it feels like Spike Lee has been away from the mainstream for an age. When Jordan Peele brought him the unbelievably true story of Ron Stallworth, a black detective who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s, Lee jumped at the chance to tackle what would be his biggest joint since 2013's rather pointless Oldboy remake. If the movie didn't tell you as much at the introduction, you would likely have a difficult time believing that what you are seeing actually (well, kinda) happened. Based on Stallworth's memoir Black Klansman, Lee takes the story and successfully manipulates it into a commentary on racial hostility in the U.S. and its circular momentum throughout the country's history. Not only that, but BlacKkKlansman is also a funny police procedural that tips its outlandish hat to the blaxsploitation movies of the era.

Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) has just become the first black police officer in the Colorado Springs police department. He is eager to make a mark, but finds himself assigned to the records room, locating files for his racist co-workers. After making his desire to work undercover known to his superiors, Ron is tasked with infiltrating a rally involving civil rights leader Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins), where he meets Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier), the president of a black student union. Assigned to the intelligence division, Ron spots an advert in the paper for a KKK recruitment drive and, with his best white man voice, bags himself a meeting with Walter (Ryan Eggold), the president of the local chapter. His fellow officers are quick to point that not only did Ron give Walter his real name, he also happens to be black. Enter Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), the Jewish co-worker who takes the job of working his way into the ranks of the ever-suspicious Klan, while Ron does his part on the phone to try and land a conversation with Grand Wizard David Duke (Topher Grace).

BlacKkKlansman is certainly not without its flaws. Lee's desire to envelop Ron and Patrice's blossoming romance into the KKK's plan to carry out a terrorist attack leads to some glaring pacing issues, and an eagerness to hold up a mirror to the growing far-right attitudes of the Trump era can often be heavy-handed. Yet Lee's interesting style - mixing comedy with serious issues and often within the same scene - pulls you along for the ride, with the director showcasing a rarely-seen talent for suspense. Flip's assignment is fraught with problems, from the volatile and suspicious Klansman Felix (Jasper Paakkonen), to the fact that Ron's voice sounds oddly different on the phone to real life. Some of the supporting characters are perhaps a bit too cartoonish for the film's overall tone, the script from Lee, Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott, is incredibly sharp and witty without taking anything away from the seriousness of the underlying themes at play. Lee goes straight for the jugular, ending with shocking footage of the car attack at the 2017 Unite the Right rally to remind us of how little has changed, and how the threat never really went away. It isn't Lee's best work, but its one of his most vibrant and cinematic joints, and arguably his most ambitious.


Directed by: Spike Lee
Starring: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace, Jasper Pääkkönen, Ryan Eggold, Paul Walter Hauser, Corey Hawkins
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,220: 'Kong: Skull Island' (2017)

The title of this latest movie to feature cinema's most famous giant ape, King Kong, refers to the beast's misty and unexplored home in Indonesia, or the Pacific Ocean, or the Indian Ocean, depending on which incarnation you happen to be watching. It's a world known to movie fans to be full of prehistoric or unnaturally gigantic monsters, and things are very much the same in Jordan Vogt-Roberts' entertaining big-budget update. Anyone fearing a retread of the story told back in 1933 and never bettered since can relax, as Kong: Skull Island is less interested in exploring the incredibly fragile relationship between man and nature than it is with smashing helicopters to pieces in front of a gorgeous sunset.

Both a follow-up to 2014's Godzilla and a build-up to the upcoming smack-down cross-over between two of the big screen's most famous abominations, Kong carries on the tone by making its human characters infinitely less interesting than the big guy we all came to see. Early trailers and posters before the film's release teased a tone akin to the great Vietnam War movies, especially Apocalypse Now, but there are little similarities other than the famous shot from Coppola's movie of helicopters flying by a setting sun and the 1973 setting. This is big, dumb fun, and little more, but that is by no means a bad thing. Peter Jackson tried earnestly back in 2005 to tell the traditional story with a mixture of heart and spectacle, with mixed results. It climaxed with the ape's relocation to the mainland and his tragic end at the top of the Empire State Building, but here, once government agents/scientists Bill Randa (John Goodman) and Houston Brooks (Corey Hawkins) seal the required funds and hit the island, we never leave.

At just shy of 2 hours, Skull Island struggles to handle the unnecessarily expansive cast of characters, and boy are they bland. Tom Hiddleston's British Special Forces captain James Conrad (an obvious nod to Heart of Darkness author Joseph Conrad) is the closest thing we have to a lead, but this is only because he is handsome and warns the others of danger. They are escorted by Samuel L. Jackson's Preston Packard, a Lieutenant Colonel in charge of a helicopter squadron called the Sky Devils whose idea of scientific study is to bomb the shit out of the island upon arrival. Among the rag-tag bunch of monkey-food soldiers are the grizzled Cole (Shea Whigham), and Jack Chapman (Toby Kebbell, who also performs the motion-capture for Kong), an eager-to-please young buck with a questionable American accent. In a somewhat baffling move, they also invite photojournalist Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) on a mission you would expect the Army to want to keep quiet.

At one point, I counted three concurrent storylines. Supporting characters such as John Ortiz's Nieves and Tian Jing's San are played by familiar faces but serve absolutely no purpose, and only John C. Reilly's stranded World War II veteran Hank Marlow brings any heart and soul to the story. Yet, Roberts knows how to make carnage look incredibly cool, and this is the meanest, leanest and biggest Kong to date. Helicopters are torn to shreds, a giant octopus (living in fresh water?) is brutally devoured, and soldiers are swallowed whole - Kong doesn't have time to share a tender moment with a beautiful woman lying in his palm. When the action shifts away from the puny humans and to the titular powerhouse, the film is so damn exciting that you can, for a short time, forgive the film's many misgivings and cliches. It's unlikely that the 1933 original will ever be topped, so it's pleasing that Kong: Skull Island at least makes an attempt to try something a little different. For a B-movie dressed up as an A-movie with only one memorable character who isn't simian, it certainly entertains.


Directed by: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John C. Reilly, John Goodman, Corey Hawkins, Toby Kebbell, Shea Whigham
Country: USA/China/Australia/Canada

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #977: 'Straight Outta Compton' (2015)

N.W.A.'s seminal 1988 hit Fuck tha Police should now be, as well as a great song, a window into a darker, more brutal past that we can now look back at on in disbelief. Like Billie Holiday's haunting Strange Fruit and Bob Marley's Buffalo Soldier, the record paints an uncomfortable picture of the treatment of black people, specifically, in N.W.A.'s case, the willingness of police officers to beat on any young black teenager that happened to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sadly, with almost daily reports of police brutality still occurring in America, Fuck tha Police is just as relevant as ever, and F. Gary Gray's Straight Outta Compton - the story of N.W.A. - pulses with the same anger and energy.

Even though it runs at just shy of three hours, Straight Outta Compton is forced to cram in a lot of incident from the ten-year period it covers, but still maintains its attention to detail throughout. Beginning in a Compton brimming with racial and gang tension, a young Andre "Dr. Dre" Young (Corey Hawkins), O'Shea "Ice Cube" Jackson (played by Cube's real-life song, O'Shea Jackson Jr.) and Antoine "DJ Yella" Carraby (Neil Brown Jr.) bring the house down with a performance of Gangsta Gangsta, much to the dislike of the club owner who disapproves of their aggressive style and confrontational lyrics. Seeking money to record, Dre turns to gang members Eric "Eazy-E" Wright (Jason Mitchell) and Lorenzo "MC Ren" Patterson (Aldis Hodge) for a cash injection, and following the release of hit Boyz-N-The-Hood, the Niggaz With Attitude are approached by manager Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti).

What follows is the familiar biopic formula frothing at the brim with enough in-fighting, doomed business relationships, personal conflict and artistic milestones to fill twenty stand-alone documentaries. But Gray infuses the film with such ferocity and authenticity that its easy to forgive the films misgivings and be utterly enthralled by almost every scene. The live performances especially - and there are many - are utterly thrilling. Bolstered by the sheer raw brilliance of N.W.A.'s music and a terrific ensemble who all share an uncanny resemblance to their real-life counterparts (obviously in Jackson Jr.'s case), the film truly comes alive in these moments, whether it be in the concert hall or the recording studio. When the group defy Detroit police with a literal middle finger and belt out the song they were warned not to play, you feel like standing up and chanting with the crowd as the police swarm the stage.

The first half of Straight Outta Compton is the best, as the gang rise to fame and speak out against police brutality (the beating of Rodney King being the breaking point). Darkness looms and is teased with the presence of ex-con-turned-producer Suge Knight (played a terrifying R. Marcos Taylor) and Cube's increasing unease with Eazy E's blossoming business relationship with Heller. As Knight lays seeds of doubt in Dre's mind, everyone apart from Eazy seems to be getting screwed out of their money. The film strides along with swagger and attitude, with highlights including Eazy's crack deal gone slight awry in the opening scene and a one-shot tour of the band's hotel room as armed strangers come a-knocking.

The film then gives way to some slightly overwrought sentiment and a who's who of the 90's West Coast rappers. Snoop Dogg (Keith Stanfield) and 2Pac (Marcc Rose) show up for no reason whatsoever, and Eazy begins his rapid descent to an early death of AIDS in some not-so-subtle scenes depicting the deterioration of his health . A end credits montage seemingly celebrating the wealth of Dre and Cube as well reminding us of some of the not-so-great things they've done over the years (Dre was responsible for 50 Cent after all) also leaves a bad taste in the mouth. These things stop it from being great, but this is still one of the best movies I've seen this year. It's best to let yourself get swept up in 90's nostalgia, savour the fantastic music (unless you're a rap Nazi), and watch the world only now seen in fuzzy music videos feel alive once again.


Directed by: F. Gary Gray
Starring: O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr., Aldis Hodge, Paul Giamatti, R. Marcos Taylor
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie