BLACKKKLANSMAN

                  BlackKklansman: A Contender for Movie of The Year?!    
In the early 1970s, Ron Stallworth is hired as the first black officer in the Colorado Springs, Colorado police department. Stallworth is initially assigned to work in the records room, where he faces racial slurs from his coworkers. Stallworth requests a transfer to go undercover, and is assigned to infiltrate  the local Chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.
  BlackKklansman is a Biographical Comedy drama telling the incredible true story of Ron Stallworth, his trials and tribulations as the first black man employed as a cop in Colorado Springs Department, as well as his meteoric rise to hero status
 The brilliance of this movie lay in the story, the message and the timely presentation of the message, with the movie enjoying theatrical release on 10th August 2018, coinciding with the one-year anniversary of the white supremacist Unite the Right rally. The movie has received wide acclaim and we are very much inclined to agree with critics on this one. The acting performance of John David Washington and Adam Driver is of particular note. Both delivered top notch acting and exceptional on screen performance from a male character in the calender year.

    Mention must also be had of the creativity employed in passing the message the movie sought to convey. The plot theme and the storyline are just brilliant. The conflict element is complex and created in the most elegant fashion conceivable. Fans loved the fact that the story wasn't made one told from the perspective of the black populace. The creative acumen of the producer saw through the need to tell a strong story against racism rather than telling a strong Black story, and we are very much taken with the work. Telling a strong story with a message against racism meant that the two sides of the divide had to be ably represented in the argument, and this the movie really captured in aces. Telling a true black story would have meant weakening the racist divide of the movie, and that would have weakened the plot, we surmise. However choosing to represent the white populace in the fight against supremacist tendencies meant that the story being told was one with a united stand against supremacist preachings.
The conflict element in the movie being diversified also meant it kept viewers engrossed and hanging to every word and every dialogue in the movie. What we really liked was the decision to tell the story of an average black man and the dangers he faced with racist elements, without necessarily telling an all black Vs white story. It took creativity, great storytelling and an amazing direction to achieve this. At the beginning of the movie, the conflict element presented sedmed a little obvious, with a white Vs white divide, plus the black lives matter campaign, and we could easily throw our weights behind the Blacks and hate the whites at the wrong side. But with the introduction of the Supremacists, and the revelation of moderation on the side of the whites, it meant that we and our protagonists were faced with an enemy they could unite against and one common enemy that must be taken down for the unity of the Nation.

Being a true event, the way the conflict was sought to be resolved cannot be credited wholly to the creative team or the writer, however we must still state the obvious; that the way the conflict was resolved was brilliant, it was stupendous and the efforts of the actors( Driver and Washington) must be commended. The decision to create drama effect meant that a lot of things had to change and some few changes were added. For instance the events depicted occurred in 1972 rather than 1979. Whereas also mention must be made of the fact that the KKK bombing never happened, as same was only added by Lee for Dramatic effects.
 If you were going into this one expecting a lot of violence, you will be disappointed as the conflict mainly revolved around principles, convictions, beliefs and what people will do to protect or promote them. Having said that, the presentation of the characters as passionate about their beliefs meant there were a lot of relatable characters and that even made the movie more compelling to watch.

   On the whole, this is a brilliant movie with excellent acting on the part of the cast. The production team have definitely scored an ace here with casting as the cast has brilliantly executed a masterpiece of a story. The work put into making this movie what it is is more easily discernible from the quality of conversations, the mastery of dialogue and conversational responses, the messages imbued in every series of sentences. This is a thought provoking movie capable of making even the most nonchalant viewer, engrossed. How Spike Lee has been able to use history to once again address present day topics is masterful and crafty. Some critics may feel the need to point out the fact that the movie is overtly political, but we submit it is not, it is intended to send a message to unite in the fight against racism, and to point at one very distinct truth, that not all white men are racists. We utterly agree with the conclusion, and add that as a matter of fact, being white doesn't make you racist, but being racist necessarily makes you white. This we feel is given backing by the superb and effortless performance of Adam Driver, whose effortless transition from diligent cop to white supremacist.
    The costumiers and the make up team have also done very good job here too. The moderation of cultural iterations of the time has to be one of the best I have seen from Hollywood in a very long time. It did make them cute too we must say.
   This is a movie we will most definitely recommend to connoisseurs of good dialogue, A list acting and award winning performances. The acting of Washington was of the highest quality, and we are very glad that he has stepped up his performances a notch from his exemplary showing in Ballers.

  Starring John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace, Jasper Paakonen, Ryan Eggold, Paul Walter Hauser.
Produced by Jason Blum and spike Lee, Shaun Redick and Raymond Mansfield
Directed by Spike Lee
 With a budget of 15Million USD, it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and already won the Grand Prix. It has already performed more than it was expected to at the box office with an 87.1 Million USD gross.
 We will give this one an FCA AppR of 8.7/10

THE OUTLAW KING

                                  The Outlaw King:A Netflix Epic

   

After being crowned King of Scotland, legendary warrior Robert the Bruce is forced into exile by the English and leads a band of outlaws to help him reclaim the throne. 

The Outlaw King tells the story of Robert the Bruce, a Scottish nobleman who turns away From servitude to the English Crown and leads a guerrilla attack against the Crown.  

The movie being a historical tale didn't leave a whole lot of room for maneuverability or creativity, it was essentially about how well the story could be told to entice and engage the modern day audience, it has to factor in the story telling technique for the movie not to be a bore or at the very least, not to be another cliché, and boy did Netflix deliver on that aspect.

   David Mckenzie writing, directing and producing at the same time may have felt a little too much, but it also meant that the idea was developed and executed from one source, perhaps that accounts for the ease with which the story transitioned into the characters' lives, and ultimately into a brilliant on screen presentation. One thing we did like about the production was the absence of over elaboration. It's absence meant that the story kept true to its origins, there was no need in over emphasising on certain aspects such as dressing, attention to tactical warfare or over indulging the characters' emotional transgressions.

   Let's do a quick one on the story, plot and the conflict elements. The plot itself is pretty mediocre, drab and a little too bare for fans of creative works, however where the plot lacked depth and insight, the script writing more than made up for it in spades. At this point again, we must give credit to David Mckenzie for doing a diabolically brilliant job of making a marvel out of a regular tale. The way the story was crafted to develop with every passing moment was astonishing, the way the characters came into their role and developed with every passing moments of the movie is pure genius. As for the conflict itself, that's where we are most pleased. One would think that being a combat story or a war story, the strength of the conflict will be in the fight scenes, the combat simulations and the likes, but no, the conflict element here was more on the psychological and political plane. It did entail some elements of emotional conflict towards the midway part of the movie, but that was kept to the barest minimum and we are most pleased with the production team. The conflict is not complex, the plot is not rich in diversity, but the creative acumen of the team delivered something that an epic, deeply rich in character diversity and resplendent with rich acting.

   The cast for the movie were awesome, Chris Pine was brilliant at his role, and then, Aaron Taylor-Johnson was a good support cast for the movie. The performance of the rest of the cast even though not as amazing ad the first 2, they also delivered some top notch performances.

Perhaps the most entertaining aspect of the movie is the ending. We loved the humiliation meted out on the English forces, most especially after we saw the dramatic raising of the Dragon banner. It was amazing. We however did like that the team decided to leave out some details for the end Credit scenes. At the conclusion of the battle, one would have wondered what became of the Crown Prince or the Queen of Scots. But then...... End credits were for the first time in a while employed to the best effect. Impressive.

   Staring Chris Pine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Florence Pugh, Billy Howle, Tony Curran, Callan Mulvey, Stephen Dillane and Alan Cooney.

Co-written, Directed and produced by David Mackenzie.

Fans definitely do have mixed reactions about this movie, but we at FCA have an opinion about this that we feel strongly about. The movie does definitely lack in plot depth, but it has storyline depth, it lacks creative flexibility and surely does not have a very strong conflict element. What this movie really has going for it is the storytelling and the A List performance of the cast. Plus, perhaps a little bit of the nostalgic scenes the movie served up in aces. 

Mention must also be made of the fight scenes, the simulation is well orchestrated, it didn't need to be over done ( being a historical tale), but you would do well to look out for the brute James Douglas. His combat performances had everything to make a movie great. He definitely does stand out though.  

  Overall a good movie that everyone with a bit of time should pick up and watch. We did like this one, and give credit to Netflix for telling a good story once again.

FCA's AppR 7.5/10