So you know how pretty much every American adolescent, at some point in their school careers, reads, or is at least assigned to read, To Kill a Mockingbird? Unless, like, the town is super backwards and racist and banned the book? Therefore, a solid, like, 90% of Americans have read that? I think BlacKkKlansman should be that, but for movies. I think it is critically important that every citizen of the United States should see this film. I don't even know where to begin. I should note: generally, I like to keep my Letterboxd reviews down to a few sentances. This is the first film that I've been compelled to write more, so here goes.

I don't cry during movies. I like to tell people that I shed a single tear when Spider-Man died in Infinity War, which I did, but it was sort of forced so I could get a laugh out of the friends I was seeing it with. That was the only time I can think of. That is, that's the only time I can think of, until I saw the end of BlacKkKlansman tonight. The "climax" of the film is one of the funniest scenes in recent memory, where (spoiler alert!) Ron reveals to David Duke, the real-life Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, that the "wonderful white American" he's been talking to the entire movie was really African-American. The entire office cracks up and Ron hangs up. Cut back to David Duke, playing hilariously evil by the surprisingly great Topher Grace, who just sits there, looking like a moron. This could've been a light-hearted, "fuck you racists" kind of ending that would've been a great comedic sendoff to a great movie. Yay! We fixed racism! Hooray!

But Spike Lee didn't want that.

No, for the final scene, he chose an intimate conversation between Ron and his girlfriend, a radical civil-rights leader. She asks him if he's done being a cop, and he says no. This too could've made a good ending, but what happens next is one of the most shocking, disturbing, and upsetting endings I've ever seen. They hear a banging outside their apartment, and they both grab their guns and rush outside. After what I've realized is a trademark for Lee (this is actually my first Spike Lee joint), a shot following the characters on a dolley, the pair looks out the window to see the KKK burning a cross outside their apartment building. Then we see a montage of news footage featuring modern day white supremacists, primarily from the Charlottesville Riots. Lee actually chose to present the video of the car driving into the crowd, the act of terrorism that resulted in the death of Heather Heyer. The footage is incredibly graphic. It is not for the faint of heart.

When the footage came on, I started to cry.

I don't know why my sadness was so sudden and so severe. I think it was the fact that it was real, and how it was connected to the fictionalized account of the events in the movie (yes, I read Boots Riley's essay).

It was a problem that felt so tragic, so severe, and it made me feel so helpless to solve it. So I cried. A lot. For pretty much the entire news montage sequence. It was heartbreaking, in every way.
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It's getting late, and this review is getting too long, so I'm going to wrap it up.

I can't present a solution for the problems this movie presented. I really can't. I cried because I felt helpless to solve the issue, and even though I'm no longer crying, I still feel that way.

All I can do is say what this movie, and all of Spike Lee's movie have been trying to say.

WAKE UP.