Opinion: Why Blackkklansman Is This Year's Most Talked About Film

It’s been two years since the #OscarsSoWhite controversy; a year since Barry Jenkins’ queer black coming-of-age story Moonlight won Best Picture (after a slight kerfuffle with La La Land, you may remember); and a few months since Jordan Peele became the first black person to win a Best Original Screenplay award for Get Out – his ingenious social horror film about racism in America.

For their 2019 awards, meanwhile, the Academy’s controversial decision to include a Best Popular Film category suggests they already know that the groundbreaking superhero film Black Panther deserves an award – even if there's an element of condescension in the new format. In any case, all of these extremely belated developments in the representation of black people onscreen and behind the camera are continuing this year, as films like Sorry To Bother You and BlackKklansman are not only earning rave reviews, but igniting important conversations about race.

While Boots Riley’s dark comedy Sorry To Bother You addresses racial profiling as well as the pull between activism and capitalism, BlackKklansman is also funny – but its grounding in reality makes it particularly affecting. Based on a real investigation in the 1970s, the film details how Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), the first black detective on the Colorado Springs Police Department, bravely set out on a dangerous mission: infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan. Yes, you read that right: a black man went undercover in the KKK and posed as a racist extremist, in order to expose the oppressive views of the Klan and prevent any terrorist actions.

The film is already receiving rave reviews – and no wonder. There is a simply a stellar array of creative talent involved. Director Spike Lee (She’s Gotta Have It, Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X) has always used his work to examine racism, colourism in the black community, crime, poverty and the prison industrial complex. Elsewhere, Jordan Peele – the writer, director and comedian who created Get Out, and who has frequently used his comedy sketches with Keegan Michael Key to explore race – is one of the producers.

Peele is currently working on US, a horror-thriller film that he wrote and will also direct. The film is set to star Lupita Nyong’o, Black Panther actor Winston Duke, and The Get Down's Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. This is a cast that’s not only overflowing with talent, but again shows Peele’s commitment to representing the stories of black people onscreen.

BlackKklansman is also brimming with acting talent, including John David Washington (son of Denzel), who delivers a superb central performance. Laura Harrier co-stars as a civil rights activist who meets Stallworth at a rally and introduces him to the work of Kwama Ture (Corey Hawkins), a prominent civil rights organiser who developed the Black Panther movement. Images and recreations of Ture’s speeches at Black Panther meetings become a stunning sequence in the film, as Lee captures the enraptured faces of young black people hearing their struggle being so powerfully articulated.

Through music and styling, Lee also pays homage to blaxploitation classics like Shaft and Coffy, adding a layer of humour and style. But by drawing parallels to racism in today’s America, from Donald Trump’s rhetoric to the appalling white supremacist marches - including the fateful events in Charlottesville Virginia last year, which resulted in the death of protester Heather Heyer - Lee also makes BlackKklansman unavoidably relevant.

Go see BlackKklansman when it comes out on August 24 – there’s much to discuss.