BlacKKKlansman

I think Spike Lee has been waiting a long time to really take helm of a film pointing out the racial divide that is ever growing in this country and more relevant than ever.  But lest we forget that in all the trappings and techniques and even criticisms that come in some of his what some might characterize as "racially charged" films, may we not forget that this was an extraordinary true story that was not so seemingly long ago.  Recent racial uprisings, notably the Charlottesville incident emboldened by the callous indifference of President Trump's remarks, are interspersed with images from Gone With The Wind and The Birth Of A Nation; the latter giving rise to the KKK in this country.  In an era of fake partisan news and distorted truths, it's often and ironically left up to cinema to take up the mantle of truth telling and to simultaneously elevate the morality and aspirations of a country purported to be the greatest or to be made back great and the ugly implications that reside in that notion.   BlacKKKlansman stars John David Washington (Denzel's son) along with Adam Driver and they do a really solid job. Note the Lee-Washington collaboration is passed down a generation.  Perhaps what the film may suffer from a bit, is not knowing how to be categorized or taken and the mashup of humor, docudrama, satire, spikeism, etc. potentially taking away from the much needed point.  In this regard, it's no different than Tarantino's Django or Inglorious Bastards including the deserved accolades.

Red Sparrow

This was a great spy thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence.  It very much hearkens back to the great spy thriller films of the 1970's like Three Days Of The Condor and The Day Of The Jackal in it's tone and sense of reality.  Lawrence plays a promising young Russian dancer turned spy who is highly compelled to just survive in that murky world and she gives a truly great performance, fleshing out what would normally be just a one dimensional villain or hero.   It is that fleshing out of her character, backstory, and drive with fairly limited dialogue against the backdrop of a an intricate plot I think, that really make this movie compelling to watch.  The action certainly and refreshingly, doesn't feel contrived or genre obligated and perhaps at the box office expense of Red Sparrow.  But of course, box office splash doesn't always equate to bad movie either.  The only major drawback for me was the under developed supporting  characters side of the story, particularly the CIA operative (Joel Edgerton) which didn't seem motivating or romantically compelling enough to justify helping Lawrence.