Chi-Raq (2015)

What a piece

I mostly enjoyed this retelling of the Greek play, Lysistrata. In the hands of Spike Lee, though, I found, for the most part, a film that can't decide what it wants to be. All of the characters are trying to be entertaining, speaking most of their lines in rhyming verse; while at the same time striving to be taken seriously in delivering a timely message in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. The attempt to mesh the two aspects of Chi-Raq doesn't really work. An especially heavy-handed political rant (that abandons the rhythmic verse of the rest of the film) at a child's funeral by a pastor was especially off-putting. If I rate this movie on what I think it was trying to accomplish, it's just mediocre, regardless of the importance of the message.