Chi-Raq

Messy and nauseating.

Everything about Chi-Raq exudes exuberance: the movement of the camera; the West Side Story-style choreography of the two rival factions; the delight the actors display in tearing into their dialogue.

This is no mere thought experiment. Can satire stop a bullet? Likely not. But it can provoke those of us who haven't, and can.

It's a mess. But it makes an impression. Chi-Raq has the force of topical-art inevitability. If it didn't exist, you feel, someone would have had to invent it.

This overlong picture is already repetitive and unfocused by the second act; by the third, it has made its point a thousand times over.

Astonishing. Up there with Lee's very best.

Lee always keeps it real and cast actors who are not only at the top of their game, but physically reflective of the people of color I see when I walk out my front door.  Written in Greek fable prose with ingenious quips - it's well worth the journey

Viewers have criticized Spike’s film because of the director’s more recent turn away from commercial film, but I sense that he finds that the violent world around us cannot be ignored.

Profoundly funny, shocking, sad and ultimately inspiring, Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq is the rude awakening that America needs to get it together...

It's one of Lee's most accomplished and effective films in years.