Chi-Raq
First screened in December 2015
Director: Spike Lee. Cast: Teyonah Parris, Nick Cannon, Angela Bassett, Wesley Snipes, Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Hudson, John Cusack, Michelle Mitchenor, Harry Lennix, D.B. Sweeney, Anya Engel-Adams, Erin Allen Kane, La La Anthony, Felicia Pearson, Yaneisha Franklin, Sarunas J. Jackson, Dave Chappelle, Steve Harris, David Patrick Kelly, Irma P. Hall, Gina Breedlove, Jackie Taylor, Roger Guenveur Smith, Anthony Chisholm, Jay Washington, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Chantley Lorraine Ward. Screenplay: Spike Lee and Kevin Willmott (loosely adapted and seriously funked up from the play Lysistrata by Aristophanes). Twitter Capsule:
A rattle bag of riffs about urban danger, a cocktail of cocktease, a hilarious hurt locker of vulgarity, tears, and anger.
VOR:④
The unabashed sermonizing against gun violence demands fierce attention on its own. Add the rule-breaking form and the resurgence of Lee's crazy convictions and this is unmissable.
