I saw BlacKkKlansman and was disappointed

BlacKkKlansman (that capitalization gets me every time - I'm copying from IMDB) is the latest Spike Lee effort. Originally a Jordan Peele vehicle, he pulled in Lee to direct a script with four writers (never a good sign, imo) based on a book by the titular black Klansman, Ron Stallworth. I've not read the book, but I've read and listened to interviews with Stallworth and I feel like somehow with the number of hands this story passed through, something crucial got lost. 2/5 stars for reasons I'll have to talk about behind spoiler cuts.

The basic story is that Stallworth, the first black policeman in very white Colorado Springs, takes the initiative to respond by phone to an ad placed by the KKK. Using his 'white' voice he gets himself invited and begins a dialog with the Klansmen that will eventually reach David Duke, then the Grand Wizard. Since Stallworth is black, he needs a body double to attend the in-person meetings. Flip Zimmerman (played by Adam Driver) fills in, with some hiccups.

There's a plot, of sorts, but hardly worth discussing. What matters more, and where the film fails badly, is in the characters. Unfortunately, to do this I'd have to spoiler so I'll put it behind a cut.
( Why should we care? )

Journaling project, Day 33

If it entertains you now but will hurt or bore you someday, it’s a distraction. Don’t settle. Don’t exchange what you want most for what you kind of want at the moment. Study your habits. Figure out where your time goes, and remove distractions. It’s time to focus on what matters.

What distractions have been getting the best of you lately? How will you refocus your energy?

If I knew what was going to bore or hurt me "someday" my life would be so much better. But I lack that kind of crystal ball. Also, I am not in the "distractions are bad" camp. Distractions are part of a healthy coping mechanism, more times than people admit. It's good to distract oneself from unpleasant things, from rumination, from negative thought spirals. Distractions provide a kind of reset that can be worthwhile. Obviously, there are better and worse distractions but that's also kind of a personal thing. I know people who enjoy distracting themselves with fanciful projects for redecorating their living environments; people who distract themselves with cute animal pictures, etc.

That said, I'll agree that distractions can grow to take the better part of peoples' lives and I certainly spend a lot of time on distractions. That said, I'm not sure what I'd do otherwise, except substitute one distraction for another. I game and watch Netflix series; if I didn't spend hours on that I'd likely spend hours on reading books and ... I dunno. My hours of distraction don't seem to keep me from doing my job, nor volunteering for an organization I care about, nor keeping up to date with important national and social issues, nor working on maintaining my personal relationships. I dunno - tell me what you think I should value more highly and I can have an opinion on whether that's better or worse than my distractions.

I have tried to make a small conceptual shift - I've been saying "I don't have enough time for all the things I want to do." It's small, but it's a way of centering my agency in the process. There are certainly many demands that take up my time and I have little to no control over them, but I also have made a lot of choices about how my hours are spent. Maybe I should make better choices?