Spike Lee's Chi-raq

And contra balls Chicago has been synonymous w "black on black crime" in the national media basically since keef blew up three years ago, moreso than other cities w/ the exact same issues

hasn't it actually been a rw buzz-topic longer, like since a certain black chicago community worker became president?

were ppl outraged that the warriors exploited real life gang violence or were ppl outraged that this movie that was obv gonna trigger riots (cf the ott concern over do the right thing in 1989) was getting released?

― balls, Thursday, November 26, 2015 11:24 AM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

both!

Man, I loved the Baseball Furies.

My concerns with this film, as such, have everything to do with Spike Lee, whose hit to miss ratio is vast and epic. Had he made a documentary I'd be as excited as anything. But another Spike Lee Joint? Nah, seems smug and pointless. The last thing Chicago needs is less truth and more Truth. This city is so messed up and going through so many horrible things right now that metaphors and reimaginings do nobody any favors.

hasn't it actually been a rw buzz-topic longer, like since a certain black chicago community worker became president?

― I don't have the time or energy to make a counterargument (stevie), Thursday, 26 November 2015 17:44 (54 minutes ago) Permalink

No. Back then chicago's rep was more about shadiness and corruption, cf the obsession over tony rezko, or his supposed political radicalism, via Jeremiah wright and Bill Ayers. Look I watched this stuff happen firsthand, the handwringing over Chicago violence came hand in hand w the spotlight drawn by the music, ppl forget that by summer 2012 fucking gwenyth Paltrow was telling interviewers she was listening to drill music

Like obviously the facts themselves predate it--the interrupters came out in 2011--but that wasnt getting the same national attention. 2012-2013-2014 there were multiple documentaries, big prime time news specials, the media spotlight was extra heavy to the point that Obama brought up Chicago violence in his reelection speech-- and all of them referenced the music, this isn't a reach

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/nov/26/spike-lee-female-students-should-go-on-sex-strike-to-combat-campus?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Close+up+new+-+2+edittable+regions&utm_term=140004&subid=40319&CMP=ema_1046

Spike Lee: female students should go on sex strike to combat campus rape/

i dont know what tone he said this in, but im not as optimistic as spike about this idea.

Colbert cited statistics that showed that since 2001 more Americans had died in Chicago than in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

can this really be true?

easily

lot more americans in chicago than iraq or afghanistan, obviously

Also is that people dying from violence or just deaths in general?

homicide in chicago:

2001: 667[48]
2002: 656[48]
2003: 601[48]
2004: 453[48]
2005: 451[48]
2006: 471[48]
2007: 448[48]
2008: 513[48]
2009: 459[48]
2010: 436[48]
2011: 435[48]
2012: 516[49]
2013: 441[18]
2014: 432[18]

certainly nowhere near the amount of people FROM iraq and afghanistan who have been murdered. but we don't count them here.

just your typical wednesday...

Wednesday 25 November: 81 killed
Mosul: 28 children killed in French air strike; 11 executed.
Badush: 25 executed.
Baghdad: 11 by IEDs, gunfire; 2 bodies.
Madain: 4 by car bomb.

Murder rates have gone down in Chicago over the past 2 decades but it's misleading in two ways: first that the projects were knocked down and people moved often to the inner ring suburbs; then a police policy of containment meant that while the rates decreased in most Chicago neighborhoods in many neighborhoods they actually increased dramatically. The inequality of violence as they call it increased dramatically so some neighborhoods are worse than they've ever been

Not sure that this context is explained in the film, but it's important regardless

the figures colbert used for chicago were military deaths, IIRC

was a little amused to see during the trailers before creed that spike's cousin has a movie about chicago violence coming out also.

Barbershop 3?

yup

Seen a lot of reviews and reactions to this one that run along the lines of "even bad Spike Lee is better than no Spike Lee," which seem to hinge on the assumption that Lee has been out of commission since "Inside Man" and not constantly churning out movies that few saw or liked. The guy has massive personality and talent, and has made a handful of my favorite films or documentaries, but like my Prince comparison upthread, it unfortunately comes down to problems of quantity and quality control.

Red Hook Summer and Da Sweet Blood of Jesus both had their fans; I didn't see either, and most of you probably didn't either.

Exactly. And did anyone like Oldboy or ... whatever that WWII movie was?

Oldboy was terrible. Hope he made some good cash doing it though.

Da Sweet Blood of Jesus was surprisingly good, and seems to be quite similar to Chi-raq, actually. Looking forward to seeing that one.

i would totally watch red hook summer. don't think i need to see the martha's vineyard vampire movie. too many cocktail parties on the vineyard will make you make a movie like that. of that i'm sure.

man, how great was summer of sam? i need to watch that again. that is so my kinda movie. he has made some great stuff.

i would like to see this someday:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucker_Free_City

i think it would be cool if he had a big ambitious t.v. show a la the wire to produce/direct.

Oldboy really was terrible. Miracle at St. Anna wasn't any sort of great film, but it was at least worth the consideration.

Looked a bit boilerplate, iirc.

Summer of Sam ... I should revisit that. One of those movies, like Bringing Out the Dead, that should have been great but for some reason just didn't work for me at the time.

summer of sam is a brilliant terrible movie. i mean parts of it are such garbage and parts of it are such magic and they build to a whole that is giddy and electrifying and exasperating and nonsense. i love it.

exactly, no one saw those movies so they're probably bad

Oldboy was terrible. Hope he made some good cash doing it though.

― scott seward, Thursday, December 3, 2015 9:58 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lee might have gotten a decent salary, but that movie made... no money at all. so nobody is getting points.

summer of sam is a brilliant terrible movie. i mean parts of it are such garbage and parts of it are such magic and they build to a whole that is giddy and electrifying and exasperating and nonsense.

Sounds like Lee in a nutshell. Even Malcolm X fits this description.

I liked the baba o'reily montage.

https://twitter.com/chancetherapper/status/672855914727260161
https://twitter.com/chancetherapper/status/672856445830995968
https://twitter.com/chancetherapper/status/672857134137233408
https://twitter.com/chancetherapper/status/672857511268102148
https://twitter.com/chancetherapper/status/672867640742948864

http://www.thestranger.com/film/feature/2015/12/02/23212222/fuck-you-spike-lee

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVaemKOUEAA445E.jpg:large

As I walked out of Chi-Raq and was asked for my first impression, I started with my usual response, "It was... interesting." But then I stopped and added, "And it was bad." Then I nodded my head a little more confidently, "Yes, it was very bad."

haha this is very relatable in terms of bad movies in general

it's exploitative and problematic

The "um, it's based on Lysistrata you morons"-splaining leveled at any criticism is getting sort of icky.

can't believe spike lee, via the release of this movie, literally is suggesting that women abstaining from sex will solve chicago's violence problems

3. When Spike Lee does do satire, he defines satire right at the front of the movie, so everybody knows it's satire.

sometimes i kinda wish tarantino and spike would make a movie together and get every cartoony stereotypical archetype out of their system. just an explosion of screaming baptist preachers and nazis and pimps.

make it happen, Samuel Jackson

(all roles played by Samuel Jackson, obviously)

that Stranger article is p. weird imo

man this is getting a theatrical release? i thought i was gonna be able to steam it today

i would love to catch this in a theater but i'd be shocked if it happens

If anything I sort of think Spike played his vampire card a movie early. I bet this subject would have made a good horror movie metaphor.

Just saw this in the theater. Crowd really into it.