Spike Lee, worldwide known director for his movies tackling race in America, has truly outdone himself in what critics are calling the best Spike Lee Joint, ironically entitled “BlacKkKlansman.”

Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman,” released on Friday, Aug. 10, welcomed the year anniversary of the horrific Charlottesville riots, where David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the KKK, stated that the riots were a “turning point for those who wanted to take their country back.”

The movie introduces us to Ron Stallworth, played by John David Washington, an ambitious Colorado native who’s just joined the Colorado Springs Police Department. As a rookie, Stallworth is immediately stuck in what most would call the uninteresting side of police work, the records room.

In a turn of very comedic events, Stallworth ends up dialing the number for Colorado Springs’ local KKK chapter, referred to as “the organization,” making a good impression on one of the members. He’s invited to meet with some of the other members, and his undercover mission as the first black KKK member is suddenly born.

Within the first five minutes, the movie brags that the events portrayed are based on “some fo real fo real s***!”, which is true for the most part. The parts that are false don’t take away from the validity or the purpose of the movie, they’re simply there to enhance the plot line and keep the movie going smoothly, with some added conflict.

I’d love to say that America is far from it’s depiction in the movie, but the sad truth is that at this point, it’s not. Throughout the movie David Duke’s, played by Topher Grace, dialogue reeks of very “Trump-esque” quotes like “bringing America back to its greatness” and “America first.”

The movie does an excellent job of portraying the time period and racial tension of the time period, almost making you forget that at one point this was ‘normal’.

In all honesty, the story shouldn’t seem like it works because it doesn’t seem like the KKK would let anyone who isn’t a “pure blooded white American” join.

As a sign of the times, the movie is full of slurs, both racial and sexual, but they enhance its validity because of the time period and the people involved. It’d be unrealistic to film a movie about the KKK and not involve racial or sexual slurs, given what they believe in.

With that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. As someone who’s never seen a Spike Lee movie before, it makes me interested in some of his other works.