BlacKkKlansman, A Review

Imagine that you are sitting at home relaxing. There is a television set turned on in front of you and you are idly watching it when what you see on the screen is an airplane striking the side of a building. You are bewildered. Upset. Confused. There is a commentator in the background talking, explaining, interpreting. But none of it makes sense. Imagine that you have been sitting there for a while when what you see next is a second plane slamming itself into another building. Now you are beside yourself feeling frightened, terrified, terrorized. If you can imagine all of that, multiply it by two and you will know what I felt last week watching the credits roll at the end of the movie on the screen in front of me.

The movie is Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman and yes, it is that powerful. A true story, it is based on a memoir written by Ron Stallworth, a Black Colorado Springs police detective who infiltrated the Klan in the mid-1970’s. Stallworth, played by John David Washington (Denzel Washington’s son), initiated contact with the Klan when he responded to an ad in the local newspaper which said the group was looking for new recruits.

Contacted days later by the head of the local chapter of the Klan (and then by David Duke who was the national leader of “the organization” as its members liked to call it), Stallworth managed to convince the Klansmen that he was a diehard racist. When he asked his supervisor for a white officer to play his counterpart in face-to-face meetings while he maintained contact over the phone, the chief innocently asked, “Can you do that?” and Stallworth answered, “Chief, with the right white man we can do anything.”

Movie critic A. O. Scott of the New York Times calls this movie “a furious, funny, blunt, and brilliant confrontation with the truth. It is an alarm clock in the midst of a historical nightmare.” It is also a movie that depicts and reflects white terrorism and racial hatred in today’s America with impassioned honesty, intense drama, and at times, hilarious accuracy. BlacKkKlansman is a movie not to be missed. 

 

My second book, Dear Elvis, a memoir about grief and loss, can be found at amzn.to/2uPSFtE

Whitney

Usually, when I go to a movie I am one of the first ones up and out of my seat as the movie ends. But after the last movie I saw, Kevin Macdonald's Whitney, I just sat there as though glued to my seat, stunned and unable to move and intent on listening to every note of the song that was playing as the credits rolled -  her 1992 hit I Have Nothing. 

During the two-hour documentary, which reminds us (as if we needed reminding) of her mind-blowing voice, her incredible range and her silk-like tones, we see Whitney in every possible way - sweet, sensual, angry, wasted, weird, witty, wild and wonderful; and as we sit there we can't help wondering: Whitney what happened? until, about three-quarters into the movie, when Macdonald drops a bombshell that goes a long way into explaining why Whitney was the way she was. 

If you loved Whitney Houston's voice, I encourage you to go see this new film which not only sheds light on what drove her to excess but gives us yet another chance to listen to that incredible and unforgettable voice and to remind us of why we will always love her.

My memoir, Dear Elvis, a story about grief and loss, is available at amzn.to/2uPSFtE