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There is nothing equivocating in Spike Lee's movies, and in "Chi-Raq" the director/co-writer makes it crystal clear where he stands.
After a powerful rap by star Nick Cannon, Lee lays out the facts: More Americans have died in gang violence in inner-city Chicago since 2001 than fighting in either Iraq or Afghanistan over similar time periods. The words "This Is an Emergency" flash on the screen, just in case anyone missed out on the urgency Lee is bringing to this epidemic of violence.
From there, though, Lee gets fanciful in his delivery. Knowingly ripping a page from the ancient Greeks, he starts with his narrator, Samuel L. Jackson — looking dapper as Dolemedes (a Greek variation of Rudy Ray Moore's blaxploitation character Dolemite) — laying out the scene.
In this version of Chicago — cynically nicknamed Chi-Raq — two gangs are battling for dominance: the Spartans, clad in purple and led by the rapper Chi-Raq (Cannon), and the orange-wearing Trojans, led by the eyepatch-sporting Cyclops (Wesley Snipes). Both sides fire off Twitter disses and bullets with abandon, leaving everyone else in the area of Englewood ducking for cover and, in the case of Irene (Jennifer Hudson), holding their murdered children.
Enter Chi-Raq's gorgeous girlfriend, Lysistrata (Teyonah Parris). Lysistrata and Miss Helen (Angela Bassett), a neighbor fed up with the violence on her street, devise a plan: If you can't take away the gangsters' guns, deprive them of the other thing they love — sex. Soon Lysistrata is organizing the women of the Spartans and the Trojans and launching a movement that spreads from the strippers in Cyclops' favorite club to the home of the mayor (D.B. Sweeney).
Lee presents this modern gloss on Aristophanes with bold visuals and an in-your-face attitude, such as the preacher (John Cusack) who uses the funeral of Irene's daughter Patti as an opportunity to attack economic inequality and the National Rifle Association. Sometimes, Lee and co-writer Kevin Willmott (who directed the pointed mock-documentary "C.S.A.: Confederate States of America") even bust out some Greek-style rhyming couplets to drive the point home.
Not all of Lee's arrows hit their targets squarely. Dave Chappelle, as a strip-club owner bemoaning the absence of pole-worthy talent, is in and out too quickly. Meanwhile, a sketch involving Lysistrata seducing a racist cracker of an Army general (David Patrick Kelly) is particularly tin-eared.
But it's a target-rich environment, and Lee lands far more punches than he misses. "Chi-Raq" is an entertaining political polemic, a stylishly sexy wake-up call to address issues too many of us choose to ignore.
Twitter: @moviecricket —
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'Chi-Raq'
Spike Lee brushes off a famous Greek play for a timely tale of sexual gamesmanship amid the terror of gang violence.
Where • Area theaters.
When • Opens Friday.
Rating • R for strong sexual content including dialogue, nudity, language, some violence and drug use.
Running time • 118 minutes.