As one of the most influential black directors working right now, no one has explored black culture and community in the way Spike Lee has through his films - or as he likes to call them, "joints". His 2018 film BlacKkKlansman told the "crazy, outrageous, incredible true story" (as the tagline says) of how the first African-American detective of the Colorado Springs Police Department infiltrated the ranks of the local Ku Klux Klan. It truly as crazy as real-life stories can get, and the film earned Spike Lee the first Oscar win of his career (in the Best Adapted Screenplay category).
BlacKkKlansman isn't just a good mix between a crime drama and comedy; the way it explores the early days of America and its relation with Black people and culture without being solely about racism is what really makes it great. It's a mix of a lot of great elements, and there are many of other movies out there that share some similar characteristics.
Mississippi Burning (1988) - Available To Rent On Apple TV
Yet another film about the detestable KKK and their shenanigans, Mississippi Burning finds Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe masquerading as two FBI agents investigating the disappearance of three people. The two agents have conflicting ideas and ways of doing things but ultimately work together to convict and arrest a bunch of KKK members under charges of the murders that took place. Like many of the other films on this list, Mississippi Burning was based on real-life events - specifically, the Mississippi civil rights workers' murders of 1964.
Tenet (2020) - Available On HBO Max
Blackkklansman fans who enjoyed John David Washington's performance should definitely not miss out on Tenet, where he gets to better demonstrate his skills as a lead Hollywood actor. As Christopher Nolan movies tend to be, Tenet is an action-fueled thrill ride that tries to juggle many confusing ideas at once such as time travel, which often leads to story points in the film that make no sense. Alongside co-star Robert Pattinson, Washington plays a nameless agent trying to save the present from being destroyed by people in the future.
The Report (2019) - Available On Amazon Prime
The events surrounding the tragic 9/11 incident and its consequences have been the center of attention of a great number of films, and The Report, starring BlacKkKlansman's very own Adam Driver is one of many. The film retells the details of how a US Senate investigator and his team investigate how the CIA tortured its detainees following 9/11.
The posters and other promotional material show that the actual title is The Torture Report but the torture part is censored, which is a clever indication of what the film's premise revolves around.
The Departed (2006) - Available On HBO Max
There's nothing like a good, noir-style crime thriller about espionage and undercover work, and Martin Scorsese's masterpiece The Departed is easily one of the best thrillers of the 2000s. In the same way Ron Stallworth infiltrates the KKK in BlacKkKlansman, Leonardo DiCaprio's Billy Costigan Jr. infiltrates the Irish Mob as an undercover cop. To make matters even more interesting, Colin Sullivan (played by Matt Damon) is a mole working for the mob from inside the Special Investigations Unit of the police. It's the ultimate battle of wits between the undercover agents of two opposing organizations.
Blindspotting (2018) - Available On Sling TV
Collin Hoskins is a convicted felon who only has 3 days of probation left, after which he will be a free man. But in a horrifying turn of events, he becomes a witness to the killing of a black man at the hands of a white police officer, an incident that leaves him psychologically scarred. Blindspotting may not be set in the 70s like BlacKkKlansman, but both films deal with themes of black social issues and race relations in the most acute of ways, one taking place in the old days and the other in the present.
Green Book (2018) - Available On Fubo
Free from the intense crime-drama and detective elements of BlacKkKlansman but still dealing with the same message spiritually, Green Book is a wholesome and inspiring road-trip movie with well thought and expressed racial undertones. The film centers around the life of musician Don Shirley who took up the practice of performing live classical music at a time when black people weren't exactly prevalent in this particular industry.
Shirley hires a bodyguard named Tony Lip (played by Viggo Mortensen) to accompany him as he goes on a musical tour around the country, and over time, he and Lip bond like brothers on this journey through 1960s America.
Training Day (2001) - Available On HBO Max
The chemistry between Adam Driver and John David Washington acting as two police detectives is one of the best things about BlacKkKlansman, and a similar dynamic is present in Training Day between its two leads, Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke (who also play cops). Not to mention, John David Washington is the son of Denzel Washington, which is yet another thing that makes it a good recommendation for any BlacKkKlansman fans. Finally, it's widely seen as one of the best movies made by a black director.
The Infiltrator (2016) - Available On Fubo
Bryan Cranston is best known for playing TV's most well-known drug dealer on Breaking Bad, and The Infiltrator finds him on the opposite side of the table as a U.S. Customs special agent working to bring down a ring of drug lords. The film is a heavily dramatized version of the real-life story of Robert Mazur who went undercover to infiltrate the world's largest drug cartel, the Medellín Cartel, which was run by the infamous Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.
The Infiltrator plays out much more like a fast-paced thriller than BlacKkKlansman, but at the end of the day, both films are about a particular person infiltrating a bad organization.
Malcolm X (1992) - Available On HBO Max
BlacKkKlansman director Spike Lee has directed some hits and some misses throughout his career over the past four decades, but Malcolm X is frequently ranked as one of his best. The life of the titular African activist Malcolm X takes center stage in this biographical film that follows him through his early days to his time in jail and associations with the Nation of Islam, and ultimately his assassination. Malcolm X earned Denzel Washington the third Oscar nomination of his career, further solidifying his reputation as one of the greatest of his generation.
Judas And The Black Messiah (2021) - Available To Rent On Amazon, Apple TV, Youtube & More
Fred Hampton was the leader of a political party and a renowned black activist in late-1960s Chicago, and Judas and the Black Messiah is a biographical film about his life. He was betrayed by one of his closest associates who was working undercover as an FBI informant and contributed to his untimely death, much like how Judas betrayed Jesus, hence the title. BlacKkKlansman doesn't delve too deeply into the politics of 1970s America but it's not completely ignorant of it either, and few films represent the presence of black people in politics at that time as well as Judas and the Black Messiah.