Anyone familiar with Spike Lee’s work will recognize Lee’s stylistic techniques he brings to every joint. Anyone unfamiliar, will instantly want to traverse his filmography further to discover what kind of voice Lee brings to the medium. “BlacKKKlansman” opens with hilarity and true terror that you’ll see throughout the rest of the film. The first scene is an instant tone setter, and Lee only goes further to utilize past events to express anger towards the present day horrors we currently see everyday. There is no sense of subtlety here, but that’s because the film plays more like a documentary and less like a typical crime drama. Lee never shies away from wanting to express his anger through tilted frames, signaling an unbalanced society. Early and often you may find yourself saying that “BlacKKKlansman” is “more of the same”, but there is an obvious voice behind the camera. Periodically it feels like Lee is trying to break the fourth wall through eerie dialogue and brash visuals plastered in American households, but it only furthers the point he’s trying to make. This may turn a few people away, but in sticking around you’ll see what game Lee is trying to play. This day in age we see many films that want to exercise the form of “escapism” when you step into the auditorium (*notice the weekend competition, “The Meg”*). Here, we see Lee excel in presenting a film in ways that film was intended. Instead of romanticizing or “Hollywood-izing” true events, Lee rather uses the big screen as a ginormous mirror for the audience to listen, feel, reflect, and engage with a motion picture. To reflect on one’s self and the role they play in America, and to reflect on current events that are plastered all over the news. Many characters embody specific demographics respectively, and no one is safe from real criticism. Less constructive, and more provocative towards the audience taking in the picture. It’s what cinema has been and always will be, and Lee uses a few classic films to showcase exactly what he’s trying to accomplish here, and it works. Working through his actors to make them feel like they weren’t stand-ins for the actual people caught in these events was something that stands out the most. John David Washington (son of the iconic Denzel Washington) and Adam Driver are the standouts here in a lightly glazed partnership. The film never takes the time to dedicate long segments to develop the camaraderie, but it never has to due to Lee believing in his actors to allow that to flourish in shorter, more intimate moments. Many other directors would want to build the world around that bond, but Lee dedicates his time to the world first so the character’s feel more palpable. Set in 1978, the music grooves and the streets rumble with quiet riots and it gives the film a pulsing, violent aura strengthening the frames for Lee to implement a surplus of his stylistic flourishes. Chayse Irvin’s photography partnered with Terence Blanchard’s score elevates the atmosphere of “BlacKKKlansman” and it assists in elevating the podium at which Spike Lee stands in using his cinematic voice to speak at an audience. Without spoiling the film’s waning minutes, Spike Lee makes a bold, powerful, and inspiring decision. It will piss people off no matter which side of the argument they may fall on, one side more than the other, but it leaves a soul-crushing impression as it fades to black. In “BlacKKKlansman” we see a black man infiltrate hate by becoming the first black police officer at the Colorado Springs Police Department. He faces an immovable adversity at first, but showcases strength and a lust for greatness to become an undercover officer. Then he proceeds to infiltrate one of the largest, most vile hate groups in the history of the world, and shares many conversations with the leader. Many of these scenes see Ron Stallworth playing David Duke like a fiddle and it garners the film’s biggest laughs. “BlacKKKlansman” and the story of Ron Stallworth is empowering, and is a story that showcases how much of a true American hero Stallworth is. Fighting hate by infiltrating it, with all the odds stacked against him, is one of the bravest acts in America’s history. Lee understands that there is stories to be told about the people of this country who deserve a voice over the ones who currently reign and prey on the people. It’s a timely story, an important story, and a story that will get you to feel like you’ve only been complicit to the true horrors that take place against an oppressed people everyday. Cinema is inherently political, and Lee utilizes this as it should as it evokes emotion and feeling, and is deliberately doing this in an explosive manner. It flexes all of it’s muscles to transfix the audience into realizing that America hasn’t changed as much as we think it has, and the mirror only reflects bigger, more terrifying horrors every day. “BlacKKKlansman” is a film by the people, for the people, and an outing that showcases that the American flag doesn’t belong to any one people, but all people. “BlacKKKlansman” gets a 95/100