Blackkklansman (2018)

Unbelievably based on actual events, Blackkklansman is, as the opening titles tell us, “some fo’ real sh*t.” It tells the story of Ron Stallworth, Colorado Springs’ first African-American detective, who attempts to infiltrate the local Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s … with the help of a Jewish stand-in.

The film won auteur-director Spike Lee a long-overdue Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, making it his first competitive Academy Award in a 34-year career that’s included films like Do The Right Thing and Malcolm X.

Blackkklansman was nominated for a further five Oscars, including Best Picture; won the Grand Prix at Cannes; and was nominated for four Golden Globes. It stars John David Washington (Ballers, The Book of Eli) in the Golden Globe-nominated lead role, with Star Wars’ Kylo Ren and Oscar nominee for Marriage Story, Adam Driver, in an Oscar-nominated supporting role.

The cast also includes Oscar nominee Alec Baldwin, Laura Harrier (Spider-Man: Homecoming) in a Black Reel-nominated role, and Black Reel nominee Isiah Whitlock Jr (Cedar Rapids). Teen Choice nominee Topher Grace (Spider-Man 3, The Hot Zone) was nominated for an IGN Summer Movie Award for his supporting role as what IndieWire calls, “an eminently punchable and regrettably familiar weasel named David Duke,” adding, “(unfortunately for Topher Grace, the role that he was born to play).” Also look out for Harry Belafonte and John Turturro’s younger brother, Nicholas Turturro.

Blackkklansman has a 96% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “Spike Lee Detonates a Funny and Righteously Furious ‘F*** You’ to Trump,” IndieWire headlined, saying the film’s “mass appeal is a huge part of what makes this funny and righteously furious American film so powerful… It’s all conveyed through the suspense of a ’70s cop thriller (and sometimes even the swagger of blaxploitation), and Washington has a blast with every moment of it.”