Chi-Raq (2015)

Directed by Spike Lee. Starring Nick Cannon, Teyonah Parris, John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Angela Bassett, Anya Engel-Adams, Wesley Snipes, Harry J. Lennix, D. B. Sweeney, Jennifer Hudson, Michelle Mitchenor, David Patrick Kelly, Steve Harris. [R]

An ambitious, outrageous, indulgent, absurdist, and heavy-handed attack on a topical, socially/racially-conscious “big theme”—it must be a Spike Lee Joint. The narrative, inspired by Ancient Greek play Lysistrata (the dialogue is even set to rhyming verse), depicts a grand gesture taken by the women of Chicago’s South Side neighborhood of Englewood: withhold sex in order to force a truce between rival gangs and put a stop to all of the reckless violence and killing. A brash, gutsy movie full of energy and style, but the central conceit is a tricky one, and the lurches between solemn reflection and overblown farce are awkward, to say the least; there’s not much clowning around, but many of the characters are depicted as clowns all the same. Contains more than its fair share of sharp dialogue and explosive lamentations, but some scenes simply don’t work, including the cartoonishly stagy climactic refusal to climax (this description makes sense if you watch the movie). Also hampered by questionable casting decisions such as Cusack as a passionate ghetto preacher, Snipes as a giggly gangsta, and out-of-his-depth Cannon, whose performance as the thuggish rapper with the titular portmanteau often seems to be trying to imitate Kanye West (the part was originally going to be played by West, though, so it could’ve been worse). Premiere film released by Amazon Studios. Features walk-ons from Irma P. Hall and Dave Chappelle, the latter’s first film appearance in over a decade.

57/100