But isn't actually really well made.

I got caught up in the myth of Ron. A man who's characterization, made him out to be a model Black man. He was willing to play his part as he 'infiltrated' a historically White institution, but wasn't willing to lose his sense of integrity or authenticity. He was smart and made the right choice all of the time and never showed doubt. He managed to both do right by Black people and satisfy his White supervisors. Not an easy task.

After coming out of the theatre my social awareness was kind of awakened and I felt that my Blackness was being affirmed. Nice fan service.

But after the movie, I talked with my sister who saw the movie with me and her take was on the opposite end of the spectrum from mine. (typical Spike)

While I was caught up in the emotional reaction and experience, she soberly watched the movie and noticed that on a technical level the movie simply wasn't that good.

The characters for instance. Most modern movies who are well reviewed or regarded draw deeply drawn, three-dimensional characters who not only display heroism and courage but struggle with doubt, disbelief, loss. We can see the thread of their current day personality from the significant events, both major and minor, in their past.

Also, the supporting characters not only advance the plot but also are given license to develop alongside the main character.

There are twists and unexpected developments in the plot.

Again, while I liked the movie, Black KKKlansman had none of these.

The characters were flat. Never changed. Outside of Flip's really nice moment with Ron where he details his non-existent relationship with his heritage, we don't get a sense of who these men are.

And we get even less of the Black Student Associations president who plays a well-dressed damsel in distress.

Spike has earned a reputation of having poorly drawn women characters and the character of the Student president (so poorly drawn that I can't for the life of me remember anything about her, including her name.) is another example of that.

Also, like I mentioned before, why wasn't Ron more emotional torn about the role he had to play as an infiltrator of a group actively fighting for Black liberation, being thought of as less than at work, and encountering blistering racial microaggressions interacting with the Klansmen? Spike did a much better job showing that double consciousness at work in DTRT.

Also, and I have to say that this is a personal thing, the language in this movie somewhat took me out of the movie. I know Spike's dialogue, especially of White characters, is not written to be natural. After hearing nigger or sp--r ch--k-r so many times, I just disconnected. I am a sensitive person so you may not have felt that way and I know the intent was to draw attention to the evil of the group but it would have been better to use the language more selectively, for effect, than to dilute the impact by using it so often.

The ending was bad. The scenario with the racist cop was so outlandish that it made me think it was a dream sequence. And while I personally thought the coda of the footage was overkill, my sister said that there is a segment of the audience that needed to see the parallels between the movie's events and the White nationalism being spewed out by 45, Duke and others.

All that being said, I did enjoy the time in the theater. I think the best decision Spike made was to put the statement at the beginning of the film because it spelled out that this was more blaxsploitation than period drama. I came out of the theater hyped up.

The cinematography and costumes were good. And the movie is visceral, mostly for the better.

It did a good enough job connecting dot to dot. But I don't think I know either Ron Stallworth or the Klan's motives any much better than I did going in.

I think this is a movie where Spike fans are hyped to see him make a movie that throwsback to his prime. But as a movie I don't think this is one of his best.