BlacKkKlansman

2018 Directed by Spike Lee

Infiltrate hate.

Colorado Springs, late 1970s. Ron Stallworth, an African American police officer, and Flip Zimmerman, his Jewish colleague, run an undercover operation to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan.

John David Washington Alec Baldwin Isiah Whitlock Jr. Robert John Burke Brian Tarantina Arthur J. Nascarella Ken Garito Frederick Weller Adam Driver Michael Buscemi Laura Harrier Damaris Lewis Ato Blankson-Wood Corey Hawkins Dared Wright Faron Salisbury Ryan Eggold Jasper Pääkkönen Paul Walter Hauser Ashlie Atkinson Topher Grace Victor Colicchio Paul Diomede Elise Hudson Danny Hoch Nicholas Turturro Ryan Preimesberger Harry Belafonte Gina Belafonte Show All…

Alternative Titles

Black Klansman, Csuklyások - BlacKkKlansman, Infiltrado del KKKlan, BlacKkKlansman: J'ai infiltré le Ku Klux Klan, 黑白三K黨, بلکککلنزمن, بلاكككلنزمن

history crime comedy drama

135 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by adrianbalboa ★★★★½ 23

topher grace list of notable roles:
• eric foreskin
• venom from sam raimi’s emo spiderman
• grand wizard of the kkk david duke
this versatility......i will not rest until he wins a golden globe at the very least
Review by demi adejuyigbe ★★½ 95

This is maybe one of the most frustrating moviegoing experiences I've ever had.
It's not without its good moments. The scenes with the black student union are so powerful. I hope this film is successful enough that it ignites a fire inside the people that need it. But...
Okay.
The first act of this film sets up SO many threads with so many little sentences that feel like they're going to pay off in smart, progressive, eye-opening ways, and every single one of them is abandoned by the end without ever being commented on again. Adam Driver has absolutely no development or arc outside of being a fixture for the operation. Characters float in and out of the story without…
Review by Sean Baker 24

Really love this film. Best Spike Lee since 25th Hour.
DP Chayse Irvin kicks ass with gorgeous 35mm lensing. Beautiful framing and coverage.
Barry Alexander Brown, who has been editing most of Lee's films since School Daze, delivers once again. The pacing and bold cutting decisions are part of Lee's signature... building to an incredibly moving epilogue that had the audience sitting in deafening silence.
See it on the big screen.
Review by matt lynch ★★★½ 5

"I never used to think about it. Now I think about it all the time."
Review by issy 🥝 ★★★½ 3

“I got it, did you get it?”
“I got it!”
“Jimmy did you get it?”
“I got it!”
“Flip did you get it?”
“I got it!”
“Sarge did you get it?”
“YOU’RE UNDER ARREST.”
Review by lauren ★★★★★

“people will never elect a man like david duke as president.” honey, you’ve got a big storm comin’
Review by davidehrlich ★★★★ 6

It’s surprisingly easy to forget that “BlacKkKlansman” is a Spike Lee joint. Not only does it open with an extended sequence from “Gone with the Wind” (not a Spike Lee joint), but it also spends a good amount of time parsing the fundamental dilemma of Jewish-American identity, and takes place in the snow-white hills of Colorado Springs… which is pretty much the furthest place from Crooklyn you can get in this country.
Sure, the usual Lee flourishes pop up here and there — from the introductory text promising this buddy cop biopic is “some fo’ real shit,” to the gorgeous conveyer-belt shot at the climax, and the sobering mic drop of news footage that brings things to a close —…
Review by Gabriel Gundacker 5

I thought it was very good, tragic, weird and funny. Won’t lodge any criticisms, because last night when I did that, standing in the lobby saying dumb shit like I “didn’t like how the score was mixed”, Spike Lee walked by.
Review by Karsten Runquist ★★★★ 7

There have been several great films this summer that have addressed race issues in America and police brutality and they’ve all done so in incredibly unique and memorable ways. This one seemed to hit the most. Not a film that necessarily feels like it should be critiqued, just one that needs to be seen. Does it have it’s flaws? Of course, but they feel so small and unnecessary to address when putting this film in the context of the world we’re living in and have been living in for so long. Left the theatre pissed off.
Review by LME ★★★★ 4

Usually, ending your movie with a news footage montage comes off as too preachy to me.....but the connection Spike makes between one of the characters and these certain clips is DUMBFOUNDING. Incredible and terrible at the same time.
I then researched the actual story of Ron and not only was this dude the real deal but that “pic scene” really did happen. Wild.
COMBO PRICE
Review by russman ★★★★ 8

This is not how I remember Topher Grace in the 70s
Review by Jay ★★★★ 2

patrice: i just got brutalised and sexually abused by a white police officer
ron: damn that shit sucks😢 wanna dance?

Recent reviews

Review by macky ★★★½

love spike lee but this movie pushes a conformist narrative that i am so tired of
Review by BrainSloth ★★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Warning: Kylo Ren says a very naughty word
Review by avynxo ★★★★★

the ending.... just wow
Review by lucalator ★★½

The film was watchable and had some good/interesting moments. However, it felt like the point was to convey a political message, and while at times political messages came through with a pretty heavy hand, they aren't totally consistent.
(spoilers ahead for why)
Throughout the film, there's a clear conflict between Patrice's point of view and Ron's. However, the ending doesn't really seem to resolve it. I'll sum up.
Plot points that support Patrice ("you can't change things from the inside"):
- The bomb plot *isn't* stopped. This is because of the systemic racism of the police force.
- The investigation into the KKK is closed because of vague "budget cuts" (clearly implying the police chief is covering the KKK's ass,…
Review by idris ★★

only thing saving this movie is laura harrier's cannes gala look
Review by Omar Attar ★★★½

"power to the people"
spike lee's message was loud and clear these ethnic wars has casualties not on both sides that are fighting but it affects people that had no business in it in the first place , lots of men women and children lost their loved ones over some bullshit ideas that people with different race cannot co-exist , but how so thats what spike enrolled in this centric kinda comedic piece ,that coexistence is like a symbiotic system one live for others and others live for one.
Review by beatrizflor ★★★½

história muuuito boa mas um pouco mal contada. algumas partes ficaram muito sem nexo, por exemplo !!~SPOILER~!! a hora em que o policial de bigode foi preso, ficou muito mal colocada! qual era o contexto de tudo aquilo??? como resolveram e montaram todo o esquema para prender ele? fora os vacilos que os policiais dão durante a investigação, que meu Deus... achei também que faltou problematizar mais a KKK, ver um monte de caipira racista e burrão na minha opinião não é o bastante pra mostrar o quão perigoso tudo aquilo foi/é.
curti muito os personagens, também achei incrível o visual do filme e o final conectando tudo com os dias de hoje é assustador mas extremamente importante!
Review by Bee ★★★½

When I first watched the trailers for this movie, I figured it was a comedy. I was completey wrong. This movie definitely has a political conversation attached to it, which isn't a bad thing, just not what I expected this movie to be. That being said I did enjoy the movie and its message. I found the acting to border on 70s exploration movies / crime drama, and its balanced well. Overall a solid film.
Review by sarahfs92 ★★★★

My first Spike Lee film I’ve seen, and it was uncomfortable being the only white woman in the theater. But wow, the acting! Spectacular.
Review by amoralez ★★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

this is prob the best spike lee movie ive seen lately. super compelling story i had never heard before, and top notch performances all around (Topher Grace is a dead ringer of david duke) and i loved the nod to old 70s blaxploitation films, really nice touch! it did feel a little rushed and sloppy at the end tho, but honestly, i feel like thats just par for course with modern spike lee joints (i wish the movie ended with the explosion). another reviewer pointed out that the directing and editing felt too low-energy for a crime thriller like this, and i totally felt that as well, honestly this movie could earn another star if it was just...reedited a bit to tighten up the screws
Review by luam ★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

I think..... that this movie missed the mark a bit
Despite the "If you encounter racism at work you must turn the other cheek" talk from the chief, there's only one cop who treats Ron badly. The precinct gave me very much Brooklyn Nine-Nine "racist cops are bad apples" energy, so that white people who left the movie could reinforce their thinking that they were "one of the good ones"
The David Duke phone call scene at the end was so weird and I don't think it achieved the catharsis it meant to.
Review by giulia ★★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

spike lee and jordan peele were the best combination of filmmakers possible for this film, the visuals, the screenplay, the storytelling... no one could’ve done it like they did.
while still enjoyable and fun to watch, blackkklansman tells the story of ron stallworth’s unpleasantly dangerous experience investigating the kkk from the inside and how much black people were killed and suffered during that time.
the ending scene with real footage from the 2017 charlottesville march was necessarily shocking to watch, it directly shows the fact that even after decades white supremacists deplorably still exist and racism is still one of the biggest issues in our society.