I wouldn’t call Spike Lee‘s BlacKkKlansman a “black comedy,” as the Wiki page maintains — I would call it a more or less straightforward ’70s police procedural flecked with ironic humor here and there.

And yet a partly humorous approach is clearly indicated in the just-revealed poster art (i.e., hood + soul comb + black power salute). Plus it obviously delivers the basic idea, even if John David Washington‘s Ron Stallworth character never actually dons a KKK hood or physically fraternizes with Klan members. In the film, Stallworth vocally pretends to be a white guy who agrees with and supports Klan goals (i.e., over the phone) while Adam Driver‘s Flip Zimmerman, Stallworth’s partner on the case, handles the actual face-time infiltration.

5.17 thread comment about BlacKkKlansman and the forthcoming Cannes Film Festival award ceremony, set for Saturday night: “Spike will most likely wind up with some significant award — agreed. On the other hand it needs to be admitted that BlacKkKlansman is essentially an undercover-cop caper film that engages as far as it goes but doesn’t, within its own logical and strategic context, make a great deal of sense. It scores solid points and says some true and necessary things about racial mindsets in the U.S. of A. now and then (the Trump-Charlottesville attack finale is glorious), but at the end of the day I suspect that the jury will express respect more than fervent praise.