Film: “Black Kkklansman” directed by Spike Lee (review from 2017)

Spike Lee’s “Blackkklansman” is sharp, well-acted, well-cast, timely—and bears a sad message: nothing’s changed.

It’s the implausible (but true) story of an African-American cop (John David Washington)’who joins the force in Colorado Springs during the 1970s and is given an impossible assignment: infiltrate the local chapter of the KKK. How he achieves this will not be revealed here.

Adam Driver has his best role yet as a buddy cop who goes along with the scheme, and Topher Grace is properly unctuous and repulsive as David Duke.

As always, Spike gets it right: the costumes, the music, right down to the torrent of offensive, unbearably racist words he puts into the Klansmen’s mouths.

With Fred Weller as an odious cop, and a cameo by Harry Belafonte that is jaw-dropping. Proud to have seen this exactly one year after Charlottesville—again proving my point that nothing’s changed. Except now it’s sanctioned in the Trump WH. (Sunday)