'Chi-Raq' A Review

Chi-Raq is a musical dramedy from writer/director Spike Lee based on the Greek classic Lysistrata. The film opens on a series of statistics explaining the origin of the Chicago nickname Chi-Raq given because the number of murders in the city out numbered the casualties in the Iraq War. We're then taken to a concert by rapper and Spartan gang leader Chi-raq(Nick Cannon) where a shooting takes place with rival gang the Trojans. Later in the evening while Chi-raq and his girlfriend Lysistrata(Teyonah Parris) are in bed the Trojan's set fire to the house. In a retaliatory drive-by a young girl is killed in the cross fire. This causes Lysistrata to gather the women of the neighborhood together and institute a sex strike until the violence is stopped.

The film's dialogue is mostly in verse which the cast mostly owns and brings life to. There is a pleasantly surprising amount of, unadvertised, star power with big names in main roles as well as a long series of cameos from great actors. Parris as the lead has the most work to do and does so with a grace and depth on which the film hinges, she handles the periodically clunky dialogue with confidence, her empathy and determination give the character a captivating power. Cannon as the titular character gives an unexpectedly decent performance easily the highlight of his varied career. Samuel L. Jackson as the perpetually amused narrator adds a much needed sense of play with some of the few comic moments that actually work. Although in a supporting role as a local pastor John Cusack's politically charged funeral sermon is easily the best scene in the film.

The tone of the film is kind of all over the place, the satire and the blue-balls humor rarely work, but even so the drama, the story, the message is clear and powerful. Chi-Raq is Lee's best film in years, the most charged and galvanizing, more akin to Bamboozled and Do The Right Thing than any of his recent work. But there is an element of optimism in the film that is new. The film lays out the brutal realities of gun violence in Chicago(and the country), the political and social challenges facing minorities and the poor, and offers some solutions, some specific some general. Ultimately the message of the film is inclusion and love, of community, of the promise of potential. It's about kindness and care and consideration.

Imperfect but potent, inspiring and playful, a call to action.

See It.