Spike Lee back on form with the most important film of the year.

It doesn’t happen often but now and then a film will hit so close to home it genuinely hurts. Rarer still is a film that’s able to deliver such a painfully relevant blow while being thoroughly entertaining.

Many well-meaning indie films will come and go with eyes on a revolution, yet few will leave much of a mark on the wider cultural landscape. However, as one of the few directors out there able to rage loudly against the machine while working nimbly within its fringes, Spike Lee is a filmmaker unlike anyone else.

Purveyor of some of the most blistering social commentaries ever put to film, Lee has always been agile enough to weave between earnest, political anger and the mainstream with relative ease. It’s not always been smooth, yet Lee’s filmography is nothing if not eclectic as he’s swung from the lo-fi comedy-drama of She’s Gotta Have It and Do the Right Thing, to the sweeping biopic of Malcolm X, to crime thrillers like Inside Man.

However, despite his nimbleness and broad-ranging abilities, Lee has recently struggled to tap into the zeitgeist like he once did. With his fair share of critical and financial disappointments over the past decade, the director really is due a win and considering the political climate we currently find ourselves in, BlacKkKlansman’s blistering attack feels like perfect return to form. And not a moment too soon.

In 1972, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is hired as the first African-American detective to serve in the Colorado Springs Police Department. While initially shipped to the records room, where he’s mocked relentlessly by his co-workers, Stallworth is determined to make a name for himself regardless. Drawn to danger, the rookie detective, with the help of seasoned colleague, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), sets out on a perilous mission to infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan. In one of the most unlikely undercover missions in history, Ron will stop at nothing to take down the hate group before they put their extreme views into devastating action.

BlacKkKlansman is a great many things but subtle isn’t one of them. Like many Spike Lee joints, the film certainly has its nuanced moments, yet makes absolutely no bones about what it is – an all-out, double-barrelled blast to a climate of institutionalised hate, racism, and bigotry that’s as depressingly relevant today as it was 40 years ago.

The film is an utterly unique slice of American history, yet, in an era of Trump, Brexit, populism, and the disturbing rise of the far right in global politics; BlacKkKlansman lays a huge slap around the chops of the entire world. With painfully timely themes coming through loud and clear, written (quite literally) in black and white, Lee is at his most assertive as he shoots a vividly contemporary picture through a thoroughly period lens.

With familiar slogans and knowing contemporary references lobbed at us like a brick through a window, Lee deals with BlacKkKlansman’s subject matter with the kind of heavy-handed approach that few can pull off. Even from the early days of She’s Gotta Have It, there’s always been a refreshingly honest, no bullshit approach to Spike Lee’s filmmaking that cleverly and effectively cuts out the middleman to deliver its weighty message directly to us, with powerful results.

On these terms, BlacKkKlansman feels like a pure distillation of the Spike Lee brand. As the true story of a black man not only assimilating into a thoroughly white police force but the very epitome of white supremacism, the Ku Klux Klan, the film leaves little room for political nuance, offering no apologies as it goes directly for the jugular.

Brutal, tense, and unforgiving; BlacKkKlansman can be a thoroughly hard watch at times, as it wealds an axe in its dissection of racism and hate, yet this alone would struggle to make an impact without the film’s refreshing accessibility. Equal parts furiously political and riotously entertaining, BlacKkKlansman pokes its head above many of Spike Lee’s recent efforts by offering the broadest canvas possible for an incredibly complex picture.

Much like Get Out before it, BlacKkKlansman works precisely because of its overt genre leanings and Lee’s clear intent to use the mainstream appeal of the film’s quirky setup as a conduit for a message that’ll undoubtedly benefit from its exposure to a wide audience.

This is something that the director has struggled with in his latter career but was remedied somewhat by last year’s Chi-Raq. While Chi-Raq used the musical as a means to get over its timely message, and the similarly themed Get Out wrapped its thorny socio-political issues around an entertaining horror premise, BlacKkKlansman uses everything from farce and Blaxploitation to the espionage thriller to get its ideas across.

It’s a wonderfully intoxicating blend of genres that Spike Lee utilises to construct the biggest soapbox possible from which to preach. Lee has long since cemented his place as one of the true greats of American independent cinema, yet his best work often comes when he balances his indie sensibilities with his mainstream side and, as the cultural and demographic climate of Hollywood begins to shift, this may just be the time for the director to come in from the fringes and spread his message as widely as possible.

Without an ounce of fat on it, BlacKkKlansman’s plot is tight, tense, and perfectly pitched, with an assured sense of where it wants to go and what it wants to do. Built on the back of the natural intrigue of its story, the film’s narrative skips nimbly through a number of taught and tense situations with all the unshakable calmness of its protagonist. Consequently, BlacKkKlansman shows itself as one of the most plot-driven films of Spike Lee’s career as it effortlessly holds our attention from first to last.

Lee mixes up a Molotov cocktail of genres but strikes just the right balance for the story he attempting to tell. While at its core, BlacKkKlansman is a blisteringly bleak dive into the dark heart of America, full of some utterly reprehensible real-life characters, the peculiar true tale behind it invites a rather lighter approach.

Traversing the line between all-out comedy and nail-biting drama is no easy feat but BlacKkKlansman makes it look simple. Juggling the outlandish, borderline goofy nature of Ron Stallworth’s situation as a black member of the KKK, while portraying the organisation’s various monstrous characters as bumbling, cartoonish buffoons, the film walks the tonal tightrope with style. There are many occasions when you won’t know whether to laugh, cry, or punch your cinema seat with rage; yet it’s precisely this whirlwind of emotions that makes BlacKkKlansman the alluring success it is.

Complementing the comedy, the film pulls off its job as a crime thriller with admirable efficiency. As the plot unfolds through a series of clever twists and turns, things become increasingly tense, yet it’s almost impossible to peel your eyes from it. While this is thanks largely to the film’s incisive writing and directing, the power of the performances shouldn’t be overlooked.

As our protagonist, John David Washington (son of Denzel) holds the spotlight admirably well for his first major film role, exuding both a smooth, yet intense, charisma that his dad would be proud of, and a natural goofiness that plays well in the film’s more farcical moments. It takes a lot to carry a film of such duelling tones, especially for someone with such a relative lack of experience, yet Washington embraces it like a seasoned pro.

Surrounding Washington, BlacKkKlansman’s extended cast is a mix of relative unknowns, solid character actors, and well established names. Of these, Adam Driver does a great job in a potentially tricky role, playing things as understated as ever, while, as the film’s primary female presence, Laura Harrier puts in a great performance, although her role feels frustratingly diminished at times.

The film’s biggest surprise, however, comes in the form of Topher Grace, whose embodiment of David Duke is equal parts chillingly, jovial, and wholly unexpected; as the much maligned actor skilfully steps into the role, embodying Duke with a softly spoken charisma that belies the character’s dangerous, hatemongering persona. As a harbinger for today’s populist, Trumpian politics, this role is perhaps the film’s most haunting.

The biggest star of the film, however, is undoubtedly Spike Lee himself. With his distinctive voice and tone coming through loud and clear, BlacKkKlansman is Lee back to his very best. While he’s rarely seen in front of the camera these days, the director’s furious presence is certainly felt from behind it, as he effectively deploys many of the tricks that have served him so well through the years.

They may not feel as raw and direct as they once were but signature Spike Lee techniques like the trademark dolly shot that ushers in the film’s devastating finale and the evocative use of music shine through brightly. As with any graduate of the 80s and 90s era of independent cinema, editing has always had a key part to play in conveying Lee’s cinematic message and that, more than anything, is what makes BlacKkKlansman so impactful.

In particular, Lee makes fantastic use of cross-cutting as he deliberately and devastatingly switches perspectives back and forth between a heart-rending talk from Harry Belafonte to a group of African-American students and a Ku Klux Klan baptism ceremony. It’s a truly overwhelming scene as the interweaving of such provocative images with a sickening first-hand account of the infamous public lynching of Jesse Washington leaves us in a volatile emotional state of shock, deep sorrow, and indignant rage.

As one of Lee’s subtler methods of attack, this cross-cutting is not only a strong emotional hook and a slap around the face just as the film threatens to drift away into farce, it’s an incredibly clever visual comment on a film the director confronts again and again, The Birth of a Nation. As the genesis of many filmmaking techniques used to this day, including a revolutionary use of cross-cutting, the film has been the elephant in cinema’s room for some time due to its overt racism and celebration of the KKK themselves.

As a student of cinema, Lee is clearly unafraid to acknowledge the importance of D.W. Griffith’s filmmaking innovations, yet is equally unfazed to call out The Birth of a Nation, and the equally controversial Gone with the Wind, for precisely what they are. As we watch the newly initiated Klansmen whoop and holler, tubs of popcorn in hand, through a screening of The Birth of a Nation while a no-hold-barred account of a horrific public lynching is layered over the top, it’s only then that the full power and fury of Lee’s techniques truly hit home.

Delivering one last knockout blow before the credits roll, Lee rounds things off with a devastating coda that, while not entirely necessary given the overt message of the whole film, works well to pull the film’s themes through into a thoroughly modern climate, ensuring that we’re left in no doubt as to what Spike Lee is saying and how he wants us to fight it in the here and now.

In blending all the fury and righteousness that’s long been a staple of his work with a thoroughly accessible and topical plot, Spike Lee has turned in both his best effort in decades and one of the films of the year. Furious, urgent, and downright hilarious; BlacKkKlansman is truly devastating in all the right ways and a movie that’s far more relevant to the world today than it really should be. Built around a standout lead performance by John David Washington and an effectively lean, enthralling plot, BlacKkKlansman is Spike Lee firing on all cylinders with a darkly comic take on a bizarre, yet incredibly important, slice of history. Not just outstanding, BlacKkKlansman is absolutely crucial filmmaking that will leave you engrossed, entertained, engaged, and thoroughly shaken.