BlacKkKlansman

Spike Lee's "joint" recounts the extraordinary true story of Ron Stallworth, the black police officer who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in 1972. Told with gritty swagger, BlacKkKlansman's collage-like assembly ensures it's much more than a biopic as, responding to an advert seeking new members of the KKK, Ron (John David Washington) ingratiates himself to the local chapter head over the phone. After sending his Jewish colleague Flip (Adam Driver) to meet in person, Ron continues his telephone-based charm offensive by befriending Grand Wizard David Duke (Topher Grace). Washington, son of Denzel, rises to the challenge of his first major film role, and the ever-reliable Driver subtly suggests Flip's own conflict. Meanwhile, wielding a wonderful sense of the absurd, Lee joins the dots between then and now in a way that's ultimately chilling, arguing that the rebranding of the KKK leads to their ideas infecting the mainstream and, eventually, the White House. The film is as playful as it is political and, although the scattershot approach doesn't always cohere, Lee struts his film-making stuff with ambition and gusto. The connections he makes are hard to deny.