Spike Lee's Chi-Raq (2015) is a sprawling, high-energy mess. One of Lee's most ambitious films, it's a theatrical display of neon-sign preachments more loud than entertaining.Lee updates Aristophanes' Lysistrata to Chicago's South Side. Perpetual gang war rages between the Trojans and Spartans, with civilians caught in the crossfire. After a seven year old girl dies, Lysistrata (Teyonah Paris), girlfriend of Trojan leader Chi-Raq (Nick Cannon), proposes a sex strike until the violence ends. The strike picks up traction, spreading throughout Chicago and the world, forcing a showdown between male aggression and female compassion.
Credit Lee for committing to his premise. His hyperkinetic style fits perfectly; his protagonists recite dialog in rhyming verse, blending smoothly into Lee's hip-hop soundtrack. Lee embraces the movie's artificiality, with musical numbers, choreographed confrontations (I loved the massive crowd reacting in unison to a slap), old-fashioned wipes and narrator Dolmedes' (Samuel L. Jackson) arch commentary. Even in its weakest moments, Chi-Raq never flags.
But as Bamboozled's satire faltered through overstatement, Chi-Raq eventually collapses. Lee bombards viewers with references contemporary and historical, equating a barracks takeover with John Brown while evoking Rosa Parks, Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin. We're inundated with statistics: more men have died in Chicago than Iraq and Afghanistan, countries who also receive more aid than American. Lee's outrage is palpable but proves scattershot and misdirected.
Eventually, Chi-Raq devolves into sophomoric gags and caricatures. John Cusack's priest barrages us with outraged position speeches. Supporting players are caricatured: Cyclops (Wesley Snipes) giggles girlishly, the girls confront a General (David Patrick Kelly) sporting Confederate flag underwear and the Mayor (D.B. Sweeny), a Rahm Emmanuel-esque flack. These intertwine with endless gun-and-penis jokes and puns about "peace." It culminates in a climactic sex-off too awkward to be funny or erotic.
Teyonah Parris gives an excellent star turn, making a fierce and determined heroine. Angela Bassett's maternal fury and Jennifer Hudson's wounded pride provide able support. Nick Cannon breathes smouldering charisma into a one-note role, while Wesley Snipes descends into caricature. Samuel L. Jackson essentially reprises his Do the Right Thing character, a detached narrator trying to make sense of madness.
Chi-Raq is a bold statement by a provocative filmmaker. It's hard to fault Lee's passion, commitment and cinematic savvy; easier to criticize the muddled, overbaked end product.
