Chi-Raq (2015) Reviews

• Plenty of interesting elements, but really all over the shop tonally and in terms of content

  bob the moo2016-09-18

  I knew little of this film when I sat to watch it, only that it was from Spike Lee, and I was open to whatever it chose to do. The opening credits suggest seriousness and grit; this is an impression that continues even at the same time as it adds theatrical presentation to the delivery, and rhyming couplets to the dialogue. At this point I was intrigued by the style as well as the content but as the ideas grew the film really gets out of control. I am really not sure what the vision for the film was, and what was told to the cast to draw in so many big names – but I'm guessing different things attracted them since so many of them appear to be in different films from the others. The film touches on a lot of serious subjects, but at the same time it tries to involve comedy, musical numbers, sexual farce, and generally odd or misjudged attempts at comedy. The result is a film that feels so totally unfocused that it is really difficult to stay with it. Being kind, you could describe this wild energy as being enough to carry the viewer along, but I did not find this to be the case. Instead I wanted it to be better – to be worthy of its subject matter and its better elements; but this never came together, and I found it quite frustrating just how messy it was. The starry cast doesn't help because even when they are really good, they are distracting by their fame, as well as the disjointed nature of their individual material. Parris is strong in the lead, but struggles to find a through-line across all her varying material. Cannon is wholly unconvincing throughout, while Snipes' comedy gangster undercuts the grit of this part of the film. Bassett and Hudson are excellent in their scenes – and it is not their fault that their scenes exist in a film different from the other scenes. The parade of familiar faces is distracting (Cusack, Jackson, Harris, Chappelle etc), although some are used well. I do always enjoy seeing people from The Wire and Oz, however getting Whitlock Jr. to deliver his most famous line (well, word) was just another misjudged moment. Chi-Raq has a lot of ideas and energy, and it is an experience to watch it for these. However the film is wildly unfocused and messy, ultimately failing to hold it all together or to deliver a satisfying whole.

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• Hated It

  chicagopoetry2015-12-29

  Chi-Raq opens with an elevated train stopping at the Wicker Park stop, the most gentrified stop in Chicago. This is where the all black nightclub is depicted. An hour later. A group of black women take over the armory, portrayed as a basketball court. Samuel L. Jackson, the shameful carnival barker, is criticizing the police, saying "if this was happening in YOUR neighborhood" how would you feel? Problem is: that armory is in Humboldt Park, a Puerto Rican neighborhood. Spike made a "satire" about the "black on black" violence in Englewood, but didn't set it in Englewood. The characters don't act like, look like or talk like Chicagoans (even if Chicagoans spoke in nothing but rhyming, sexist cat calls). Is there some black group resembling the Grand Order of the Buffalo wearing weird hats and sitting around on velvet couches making decisions for the black population of Chicago? No. But this is what is depicted in this total mess of a film about the touchy subject of gun violence, which isn't exclusive to the black community. Then there's the insurance salesman selling insurance to mothers for their young sons, since they are likely going to get killed by gunfire. This makes for a shocking display but do insurance companies actually do this? Truth be told, the LAST person an insurance company would want to insure is someone that they EXPECT will die in the near future. It's just nonsense created by Spike Lee. Of course this wouldn't be an American movie about the problems of black people without a white savior and this time around it's John Cusack. Granted he gives one hellava performance as a preacher but he's still the obligatory white man saving the day. One would think Lee would skip this ingredient in the formula but nope. One would also like to think Spike wouldn't portray his own people as vulgar, ignorant, uneducated stereotypes but this is what he's handing us, having his characters speak in rhyming poetry that is so illiterate and profane that even an audience at a Green Mill poetry slam would probably be squirming, too afraid to boo because they might get shot. (Example of typical dialogue you can expect in the movie Chi-Raq. Male: "I know you miss daddy dick nasty." Female: "Not more than you miss the steamy creamy hot buttery biscuit.") Which makes it all the more preposterous when the women of the film demand respect. Excuse me, strange alien Nubian female creatures invented by Spike Lee and transplanted into planet earth via a film about Chicago--but isn't respect EARNED? You want us to respect a bunch of gun crazy thugs who speak in rhyming Ebonics who can only be reasoned with if the p*ssy is cut off? Do tell: WHY?? The characters in the film aren't even portrayed as living in poverty. Quite to the contrary, they might as well be living in Graceland, so lavish their homes are. We're supposed to respect these hoodlums? Care about these nut jobs? Sympathize with them? But let's remember, before we forget this isn't a real portrayal of black Chicagoans; this is NOT a story about Chicago. This is a story about two fictional gangs, the Trojans and the Spartans (as if any black gang would choose those names), a play on an old Greek comedy no less. In one scene Lee actually has them wearing blue and red bandannas, as if they are Crips and Bloods, in Chicago!! Chi-Raq has nothing to do with Chicago. Nothing. And as such, it's completely worthless, because the gun violence in Chicago IS real and deserves more than this lazy satire with it's one dimensional characters. But wait, hold on, it gets worse. Spike throws in a few musical numbers that are so horrendously choreographed that, if I didn't know better, I would think were Saturday Night Live sketches. Under any other pretext, this film would be a slightly below average comedy that could be excused for its pretentiousness because it's striving too hard to be experimental. But this is Chi-Raq, the new Spike Lee movie, the film that had the mayor of Chicago up in arms worrying about how it was going to make his city look. Well, worry no longer, Mr. Mayor, because there's nothing in this film that makes Chicago look bad (unless you consider the scene where you are portrayed squealing like a pig ala Deliverance), but there is a whole lot that makes Spike Lee look bad. There's no indictment of the city here, and there's no answers to the problems here either. What there is, is Mickey Rooney, Jerry Lewis and Peter Sellers at their absolute worst if they were wearing black face. But let me end with a thought about the name of this film. It may be true that more people have been killed in Chicago than soldiers killed in Iraq, but what kind of idiotic comparison is that in the first place? We were the invading army in Iraq. If we included all the Iraqis that were killed as the result of that invasion, it would fall into the hundreds of thousands, perhaps even over a million. So what an insult to the people of Iraq, to compare the black on black gang violence in Chicago to the illegal invasion and occupation of an entire country, and in doing so to only include the casualties of the occupying army as victims worth counting. I'm just trying to figure out what was going through Spike Lee's head when he decided he wanted to make a movie about gun violence in Chicago and then got the bright idea to make it a sex comedy. But we have to remember this is the same guy who crowd funded a straight to Netflix remake of a totally obscure blaxploitation film and also remade Oldboy pretty much scene by scene for only he and God knows what reason.

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• At least he tried

  SnoopyStyle2016-07-17

  Chicago is referred to as Chi-Raq. American losses in Afghanistan from 2001 to today amounts to 2349, in Iraq from 2003 to 2011 amounts to 4424, and Chicago from 2001 to 2015 with 7356 murders. Dolmedes (Samuel L. Jackson) refers to ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes' play Lysistrata. Chi-Raq (Nick Cannon) is a rapper. Lysistrata (Teyonah Parris) is his girlfriend. Cyclops (Wesley Snipes) is a local thug. Irene (Jennifer Hudson) suffers the lost of her child from a stray bullet. Lysistrata leads a campaign by the women to withhold sex until the men stop the violence. Spike Lee takes on a tough subject. The 'solution' is poetic and way too simplistic. I get the allure of pairing the classic Greek play with the present day reality. If nothing else, he's agitating for a solution to this intractable problem. He's not giving up. As for the movie itself, I have a few problems with the cast. John Cusack does not fit as a priest. I accept his Chicago connection and his need to help with this issue. He has never played this type of role and it's very odd to see him here. The General King Kong character is even worst. He is ridiculous. I don't know what Spike Lee is trying to say about the military and what connection they have with the murder rate. On the other hand, Jennifer Hudson's presence is powerful. Overall, this is a mix bag but at least, Spike Lee is willing to tackle the issue like he did so many years ago.

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• A Review Written in Ironic Pentameter

  bkrauser-81-3110642016-03-17

  The newest joint from director Spike Lee, is a bizarre experiment for all to see. Told in a brash tone, preaching with a megaphone, promising to make heads roll, And influenced by the writings of old Aristophanes. Lysistrata (Parris) is the main squeeze of Chi-Raq (Cannon), A man with hopes to rap and plans attacks with and between two rival clans. There's similarities between another two households alike in dignity, Down to the the colors worn during their mutiny. So hopeless is their feud, no faction can collude to end, The violence penned and pent up in the hearts of these men. So too does Lysistrata makes her nihilism known, Until an innocent is slain by a bullet in stray. Plotting with Miss Helen (Bassett) and her sisters to atone, The ladies decide to keep their menfolk at bay. Thus swayed with a solemn oath to end the specter of death, From the streets of the City with Big Shoulders, The women of Chicago swear with resounding shibboleth, To go on sex strike until the violence is over. Much like this review, the film is in rhyme, which can grind, The gears of many not willing to meet it halfway, The characters imbue parody and are unable to find, Balance between the real and distorted morality play. Overwrought with the thoughts and ersatz of bathetic farce, There's still something radical with which few can parse; Like when the gals take the armory, like Greeks to the treasury, The choruses of men and women can't help but find, A sincere quest for peace too abstruse for the blind. Thus this film is a siren's call for peace that should be heard, Even if it is incredibly uneven in places. The sui generis of such a movie bends to the absurd, Yet the message is true thus putting me in it's good graces. There was much hullabaloo about it's offensive fantasy, Minimizing the tragedy of a besieged Windy City. I for one stopped myself from attending a screening, As Chicago is second home thus this treatment is demeaning. Yet firstly, this film is supposed to be skit and travesty, While the reasons for violence is complex, the act is absurdity! Why not have an expression that typifies the high camp of low brutality. Why not revel in the message of love, that which comes from above, Below and inside the mourning, healing hearts and souls thereof. There are many reasons to hate: revenge, opportunity, resource, religion, Politics, poverty, power, cash, race and competition. Yet there is only one reason for love. Secondly the source material is Greek in more ways than one, Comprehending the pathos of such a think piece maligned, Appropriates the fields of Thalia, Euterpe and Clio entwined. It's not the who, what, where or when but why, when all is said and done. And how strongly you feel by the tears and blood shed, When all players arrived, sheathed in white, bathed in the glory, Indemnified by a campaign ignited by Leymah Gbowee. They end in the way a comedy should, in jubilation and ascension. A better understanding made possible by an old form. In modernity and convention we're given new dimension, With which to understand what's sadly a new norm. Manipulative? Simplistic? Sexist? Maybe; Greek comedies are not exactly known for their subtlety. Neither is Lee who hungrily experiments with novelty, Blusters with the voracity of his new expression, Not bothered or concerned with the asylum of discretion. He's a maverick through and through, taking risks made bear, By a new form first fashioned by the surname Lumiere. It tries, it fails, it gets back up again and fights the good fight, Using to make right the names of Jackson, Bassett and Snipes. Is this movie acropolis or apocryphal? Watch and decide. www.theyservepopcorninhell.blogspot.com

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• Chiraq - A Mediocre Movie Made Terrible by Ignoring Real Cries for Real Help

  robo042-12015-12-19

  On it's own it's a goofy yet poignant musical. A little boring, if I'm being honest. But with the name "Chi-Raq" and it being set in Chicago and it dealing with the gun violence in Chicago, the movie is worse than just bad. Chiraq is a real term that real kids in real bad neighborhoods came up with to describe their environment. Chicago's murder rate doesn't look like much when taken as a whole but when you realize that 99% of it occurred in just a few of Chicago's many neighborhoods, you'll understand why those unfortunate kids from those neighborhoods chose this term. These are not white neighborhoods, mind you, remember that Chicago is the most segregated city in America. These kids really have seen more literal dead bodies growing up than most soldiers have seen in Iraq. The term is as offensive and loud as possible because it's meant to get your attention. It is a very literal cry for actual help in every sense of the word. Spike Lee takes this term and honors the meaning behind it by completely ignoring those cries for help. He chooses to use Chicago to tell some story about how a sex strike maybe solved a civil war one time so yeah that could totally solve all the dead bodies that pile up in Englewood and Fuller Park every year. And the corrupt governmental system keeping it secret and confined to black neighborhoods. The most obvious example of Spike Lee completely missing what's really going on in the *real* Chiraq is the fact that the gangs in his film beef over colors. Don't nobody care what colors you wear in Chiraq, your chances of being killed are the same regardless. That's some goofy west coast crap. Modern gangs in the real Chiraq form simply out of safety in numbers. Activities vary set by set, block by block. Conflict typically stems from disputes over sex and violence. This is what motivates *most* violence in America, however when it happens on the South Side, it gets labeled "gangland violence" and then gets mostly ignored by media outlets. Simple things get overlooked like how a lot of these deaths could be avoided simply by building a closer trauma center to these neighborhoods so it doesn't take an ambulance over an hour to get to the scene. How more educational and work force centers can provide direction to directionless kids with no hope. How proper legal representation and education could ensure we're not occasionally sending innocent kids to jail to learn how to become a savage along with the rest of them. These are all common things you'll find missing from most of these consistently super high crime areas in Chicago. It's gotten bad in Chicago. And when I say bad, I mean real bad. Someone needs to shine a light on what's really going on because it's gone way beyond any other place in America. Way worse than you're imagining. The only thing a sex strike would do on the South Side is make the already high sexual assault rate climb even higher. And that's just real talk. Which Spike Lee's "Chi-Raq" continues to ignore by examining none of those things. In Spike Lee's world, it's almost like he's saying it's black people's fault the murder rate is so high in places like Austin and West Englewood. Like he's saying "You girls maybe need to stop putting out so much, that's the problem." 1 out of 10 stars, no sympathy for those who chose to ignore real cries for real help from an entire group of disenfranchised youth.

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