This plot sounds absurd. Absolutely unreal, and I can’t wait to read the book about this story.

Adam Driver was down right awesome in this.  His character’s identity struggle–being a Jewish man who acts as one-half of the duo tasked with infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan, a domestic terrorism organization known for denouncing the Jewish faith, was incredibly acted. 

Jasper Pääkkönen (Felix) played one of the film’s main antagonists and was an equally compelling and convincing actor.  Watching his constant interrogation of Driver’s character, suspicious of his motives for joining “the organization,” felt uncomfortably voyeuristic, which I appreciate as an audience member. IMO, art should evoke some type of emotion or reaction, positive or negative, and this piece hit close to home at many moments.

Speaking of, this film was effective in reminding me that WE have a long way to go.  I’m from Richmond, Virginia–the capital of the Confederacy.  My high school is a block away from “Monument Avenue” where there still stands a grand tribute of Confederate leaders, one-by-one-by-one. And at the end of the line of Confederate statutes is a monument of Arthur Ashe– one of our city’s TRUE historical figures.  And 👏🏾 he 👏🏾 Black👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾—which is the most important part. God, I wish I was a fly on the wall at that city board meeting:

“Hey, yea, so—fuck your racist bullshit.  We’re gonna slap a B-L-A-C-K sports icon at the end of Monument Avenue. K, thanks…bye!”

I was living in Atlanta when the white nationalist, tiki torch riots occurred in Charlottesville, and part of me kept thinking ‘it wasn’t real.’ Like, I knew racism and anti-Semitism still existed, and experienced the former many times. And I knew that our Commander-in-Chief emboldened people to believe that somehow “their” country was being stolen from them.  That somehow their rights were being stripped away because society was evolving and working on repairing our broken history rather than contributing to its division. Unfortunately, Heather Heyer lost her life that day, and many others were injured. WE have so much work to do. Post-Trump America is going to be an interesting place. 

I thank Ron Stallworth for sharing his story. I thank Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, and Jason Blum for producing, and Spike for directing.  These stories are necessary. This art is necessary.