BlacKkKlansman

In the late 1970s, the first African American police detective in Colorado Springs, Colo. (John David Washington) goes undercover to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan, with a white colleague (Adam Driver) stepping in for face-to-face meetings. Detective Ron Stallworth’s memoir is adapted by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and director Spike Lee into an alternately harrowing and hilarious melodrama that often cleverly mimics the style of “blaxploitation” movies from the era when it takes place. It’s entertaining and angrily thought-provoking, with Lee at the top of his game—even if he can’t stay off the soapbox and piles on too many endings. The closing scenes, tying the resurgent Klan to the Charlottesville riots and Donald Trump, may be what helped win the picture the Grand Prix at Cannes.