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…

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 —…

A good lookin and provocative true story but it's a little too Hollywood and slow, diluting Spike Lee's signature rage that make his greatest films so passionate. It should've built a stronger relationship between Driver and Washington and done away with the corny romance between Harrier and Washington that is clearly a fabrication made by the filmmakers to explain to an uneducated audience what the black power movement is about.

The biggest detriment to the film however, is its weak portrayal of the conflict between police and black Americans. Instead of exploring the institutional racism that exists in the police force, the film plays it off as a couple 'bad eggs' that make the rest of the cops look bad.…

A pretty standard buddy cop drama that suffers from pacing issues (why is this dancing dragging on for so long? why am I still watching Alec Baldwin in anything at all?), weird edits (how long was Ron working records? did Flip just sit down and then teleport to standing in the next shot?), bizarre character decisions (why is the anti-cop black student activist chilling with white cops at a bar? why is Ron using his white voice in this scene? why did the chief suddenly change his mind on helping Ron?), and unrealized story arcs (does Flip care about being Jewish now? does Ron have a different opinion on institutional racism? does Patrice?).

Finally, the last 10 minutes of the…

As many other people have already said, this is one of the few movies where the KKK is treated simultaneously as a bunch of dumb goofballs, and as an existential threat to the physical and mental safety of a far too large number of Americans. In regards to this, I felt like the movie was ending on a very good joke, but also leaving the story in a place that was emotionally satisfying but overly simplistic, then the last two scenes punched me in the gut. I should never have doubted Spike Lee’s continuing crusade against easy answers to America’s toughest and most intractable questions. Going as far back as Do The Right Thing, Lee has been examining the duelling…