The violence has to stop. Spike Lee’s “Chi-Raq” is set in a violent south Chicago community, where the women decide that the best way to put an end to the senseless violence is to deny sex to the men in the competing gangs, and in the neighborhood in general, until there is truce and an end to the warring. Samuel Jackson L. Jackson serves as a narrator guiding viewers through the story. Nick Cannon plays Chi-Raq, one the main proponents of the vicious conflicts. Teyonah Parris leads the “no nookie” brigade.
Lee makes a very powerful point in “Chi-Raq”: the mind-numbing hostilities in some low-income Black communities must stop. (I make the point “some” because this is not happening in all Black communities.) The problem is that this strong argument almost gets lost in a convoluted, poorly performed production with laughable rhyming dialogue. (The film is a modern-day adaptation of the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes, which, in Lee’s defense, explains the rhymes.) He also embraces every negative stereotype with these characters: foul language, “slutty” women, crude and crass behavior and broken down and non-existent families. Sex is never lovemaking but rather loud and aggressive fornicating.
It’s good to see performers such as Nick Cannon, Angela Bassett, Wesley Snipes, Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Hudson and John Cusack on the big screen, and they make the best of their opportunities. However, Parris is a disappointment in a lead role.
“Chi-Raq” gets a “See It!” rating just because of the strong message it conveys. Admittedly though, it is very weak in many ways.
It’s gets a B- for cast diversity. Just by the nature of the story, the cast is overwhelmingly Black; John Cusack and D.B. Sweeney have important roles.
“Chi-Raq” is almost two hours in length and is rated a well-deserved “R” for sex, dialogue and overall theme. It is a production of Amazon Studios—that’s Amazon as in the mega online merchant.