BlacKkKlansman

Started by jenkins, August 13, 2018, 09:07:36 PM

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

jenkins



third movie i've seen this year. so i can't compare it to every movie made this year, but i can compare it to every Spike Lee movie i've seen, and this is a good one.

the lead actor is Denzil Washington's son. in what other movie will he appear this year? The Old Man & the Gun

i almost cried 3x. i'd call this movie "deeply moving." no regrets about seeing this movie.

jenkins

https://twitter.com/BootsRiley/status/1030575674447212544

Boots Riley wrote three pages about being disappointed in this movie.

he mentions how one of the scenes that brought me toward tears was a total fabrication.

it's not as if cops aren't racist he's saying.

he's saying Spike Lee leans toward the white perspective a bit too much.

therefore i can't really defend Lee in this situation. it's not my conversation, simply.

in theory i could defend Lee. but i won't, because i don't think Boots Riley is being crazy.

jonas

I really liked it, best film by Spike in a long while.

SPOILERS

The only thing that didn't really sit well with me was the minute-long epilogue with the 2017 footage. On one hand I can understand why he did it, but on the other I feel like adding that on will only date the movie poorly.

I feel like the overall message was great, but to suggest that between 1978/79 (when the film is based) and 2017 that no other racial related violence has happened in the USA is silly. Since he's releasing it this year that message makes sense in the theater run, but are people really going to think about 2017 twenty years from now as a major milestone in racial tipping points?

This movie could have come out 10 years ago and had just as strong as a message, I don't feel like tying it to 2017 will be beneficial in the long run.
"Mein Führer, I can walk!" - Dr. Strangelove

pete

Quote from: jenkins on August 19, 2018, 02:47:30 PM
https://twitter.com/BootsRiley/status/1030575674447212544

Boots Riley wrote three pages about being disappointed in this movie.

he mentions how one of the scenes that brought me toward tears was a total fabrication.

it's not as if cops aren't racist he's saying.

he's saying Spike Lee leans toward the white perspective a bit too much.

therefore i can't really defend Lee in this situation. it's not my conversation, simply.

in theory i could defend Lee. but i won't, because i don't think Boots Riley is being crazy.

I dunno if he got as academic as saying that it leans towards a white gaze or white perspective - he's stating, with full citation, how the actual cointelpro operation contradicted the claims of the movie, and how really in effect cointelpro had some pretty racist roots, and Ron Stallworth himself infiltrated a liberation group that Boots and his parents were a part of in the 70s. He just felt like while all movies invent and fabricate, the fabrications of this movie were almost all to cover up the racist nature of the department and the operation, including making the white cop jewish so there could be more stakes, having an intervention with a racist cop, playing down his infiltration of black movements...etc. etc. the critiques weren't about aesthetics or academics but it was him citing real sources from the FBI themselves that in totality demonstrated a clear attempt to dress down acts that the filmmakers themselves knew were racist.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

jenkins

his closer made me think he was calling Spike out in a particular way. was why i thought he was.

this was only to explain that, and not to disagree with the above mentioned. frankly i think Boots started a healthy conversation.

Something Spanish

just got back and still collecting my thoughts, but it's a powerful movie that's entertaining in a purely cinematic sense and thought provoking in its contemporary relevancy. also just read boots' criticisms, only thing is when watching it not for a second did i think that any of the material was based on a real events and took it in the same way i did something like QT's Basterds. nonetheless, it's an interestingly written assertion. wonder how spike took it.

stuff that bothered me was more from the storytelling perspectives, mainly the unbelievable way the KKK is infiltrated and the ruse maintained.

SPOILER (for instance when the heavy drops in on stalworth and sees washington instead of driver in the apartment, wouldn't he have recognized him instantly when he bodyguards for duke? also what's up with the queens, ny explosive expert at a klan rally?)

think spike kicked some ass here, especially during the speeches delivered in the film. he's always had a knack for visually crafting speeches to dramatic effect.

Sleepless

Spike's best in a good while. Not the greatest film of the year, but I thoroughly enjoyed. Knowing what else is likely to be nominated for Best Picture, this'll be the one I'll be rooting for the win.


Quote from: jonas on August 20, 2018, 02:44:04 PM
The only thing that didn't really sit well with me was the minute-long epilogue with the 2017 footage. On one hand I can understand why he did it, but on the other I feel like adding that on will only date the movie poorly.

Because Trump. I mean, I get what you're saying, but it ties back into the earlier conversation (which similarly took me out of the movie) about the KKK's long-term goal to get someone like them in the White House. Yes, this film could have been made at any point since the "fo' real fo real shit" actually happened - but it came out in the time of Trump and the resurgence of white nationalism to the mainstream, so it addresses that throughout. This specific story may be over, but the enemy persists even decades later.
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

Jeremy Blackman

This was surprisingly meh. Entertaining, but that's about it. Writing was subpar from beginning to end. Something was very off about the acting; I think Adam Driver had the only good performance.

The story has numerous problems, too. It feels juiced up within an inch of its life (is that a coherent metaphor?) in a very Hollywood kind of way, and that's not great.

Also... Could they not afford more than one music cue, or was that a choice?

Jeremy Blackman

Quote from: Jeremy Blackman on January 15, 2019, 05:52:10 PMCould they not afford more than one music cue, or was that a choice?

This is now an Oscar-nominated repeating music cue.