Blackkklansman: Racism, Beefcake, and Bad Boys

Anytime anyone laughs in a movie, even once, Hollywood advertises it as a comedy.  Blackkklansman is not a comedy.  It is a drama.

Around 1973 or 1974, straitlaced, conservative Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) becomes the first black police officer in the Colorado Springs PD.  At first he is relegated to the sub-basement records department, but eventually he convinces the captain to let him go undercover.

His first assignment: to infiltrate the Black Student Union at Colorado College, to find out if they're planning anything violent.  They aren't, but he gets a radical girlfriend out of the deal (every movie has to have some hetero-romance).  They don't do much hugging and kissing, but they do discuss the relative merits of blacksploitation movies.  Plus we get to hear a Black Power speech by Kwame Ture, previously Stokely Carmichael (Corey Hawkins).

Next Ron infiltrates the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan to see if they're planning anything violent. They are!

To overcome the obvious problem of showing up at a Klan meeting while black, he enlists Flip (Adam Driver) to play Ron.  To increase the dramatic potential, Flip happens to be Jewish.

After a few bumps, Flip/Ron is accepted by the local Klan: subdued leader Walter (Ryan Eggold, left), loose cannon Felix (Jasper Pääkkönen), Felix's chirpy wife Connie (Ashlie Atkinson).   Flip/Ron even draws the attention of Grand Dragon David Duke, played as bumbling nerd by former That 70s Show star Topher Grace.

The parallels between the radical student group and the Klan are obvious, and deliberate.  Both are preparing to "defend themselves" against evil people who control the U.S. and plan to destroy them.  Both are amenable to the use of violence.  It's just the luck of the draw that one of the groups planted the bomb first.

The difference, of course, is that the black group's history of oppression is real.

The gay connection:  not a lot of hetero-romance going on.  Flip never expresses any interest in women, except when he is pretending to be a Klansman.

Body-by-Michelangelo Faron Salisbury in a minor role as Officer Sharpe.

And in 2003, Jasper Pääkkönen starred in the Finnish movie Pahat pojat (Bad Boys), about four hot guys who don't own shirts. It's not available in the U.S., but I think there's some shirtless robberies, car chases, and frontal male nudity.