Review of Black Klansman (2018)
Seen in 2020.
Overly simplified. Driver is unconvincing compared to his dramatic roles. Washington is better, but the script pinches his character in the manner of broad melodrama, not Lee’s typical Brechtianism. The overtly racist officer (Landers) and the Klansmen are all such dweebs and fools that there is no sense of menace. They even blow themselves up without opposition, and yet Lee polemicizes against the threat of white supremacists in 2018, because he knows that threat is actually more serious. It’s a curious case of reverse scaremongering, contradicting both history and Lee’s own agenda.
References here: Reviews on this site, Da 5 Bloods (2020).