Spike Lee's new film 'BlacKkKlansman' is based on an electrifying true story, and it has a 98% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes

John Lynch

Aug 10, 2018, 18:04 IST

Spike Lee's new film 'BlacKkKlansman' is based on an electrifying true story, and it has a 98% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes

Focus Features

"BlacKkKlansman"

Critics are praising Spike Lee's latest film, "BlacKkKlansman," as the best work in years from the acclaimed filmmaker.

The movie is based on the true story and memoir of Ron Stallworth, the first black detective to work in the Colorado Springs police department, who in the late 1970s devised a plan to infiltrate and expose the Klu Klux Klan.

"BlacKkKlansman" was developed and produced by Jordan Peele (the Oscar-winning director of "Get Out"). Peele brought the project to Lee as a working concept in 2017, and critics are calling the resulting work a dynamic mix of crime drama and comedy, as well as a sharp social commentary on the past and present.

The film, which stars John David Washington and Adam Driver, currently has a 96% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Here's what critics have said about "BlacKkKlansman," which opens nationwide on Friday:

"Spike Lee returns to form with a true-life story that works as comedy, crime drama and political alarm-bell all at once."

"Spike Lee's hellraiser about a black cop who infiltrated the KKK in the 1970s is also an incendiary indictment of our current Trump moment and one of the best films of the year. A cinema giant has found his voice again and the power to make it heard."

"Its fiery message couldn't be more timely - and its rage more justified."

"[Lee] is firing on all cylinders here. 'BlacKkKlansman' is a true conversation starter, and probably a conversation ender as well."

"'BlacKkKlansman' announces from the jump that viewers are in for a lush, sensory treat as Lee plays with the film vernacular he's manipulated so adroitly and expressively for three decades."

"It was history written with lightning. 'BlaKkKlansman' is a deafening roll of the thunder we've been waiting for ever since."

"Lee never takes his eye off the connecting thread between the events of 1978 and the present. The result is one of his most flat-out entertaining films in years, and also one of his most uncompromising."

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