Boots Riley—member of the Coup and director of Sorry to Bother You—has provided a scathing political critique of Spike Lee’s new movie, BlacKkKlansman. In the three-page doc, which options intensive spoilers of the film, Riley takes Lee to process for departing from the true story the movie was primarily based on.
Riley concedes that Lee is a superb inspiration to him as a filmmaker and, aesthetically, calls the movie a “masterful craftwork.” But Riley in the end argues that in BlacKkKlansman, Lee presents “untrue elements that make a cop a hero against racism.” Riley writes, “It’s a made up story in which the false parts of it try to make a cop the protagonist in the fight against racist oppression. It’s being put while Black Lives Matter is a discussion, and this is not coincidental.”
After a prolonged fact-check of the movie’s plot, Riley writes, “For Spike to come out with a movie where a story points are fabricated in order to make Black cop and his counterparts look like allies in the fight against racism is really disappointing, to put it very mildly.” He then brings up his 2016 essay for the Guardian, during which he mentions how Lee’s 2015 movie Chi-Raq “plays into that myth” of black-on-black violence. He concludes by saying, “By now, many people know that Spike Lee was paid over $200k to assist in an advert marketing campaign that was ‘aimed at improving relations with minority communities.’ Whether it really is or not, Blackkklansman appears like an extension of that advert marketing campaign.” Read the complete critique under.
Read Pitchfork’s interview with Riley, “Boots Riley Breaks Down the Savvy Radicalism of His Directorial Debut, Sorry to Bother You.”
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