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“Satire is a dangerous game In Hollywood,” Billy Wilder once observed. “It invites self-immolation.” Still, the satiric spirit looms large in many of this year’s buzzworthy movies: American Fiction, Poor Things, Saltburn, Air, The Holdovers and even Barbie.

All mobilize satiric weaponry — humor, irony, even ridicule — in advancing their perspectives. The clever corporate barbs in Barbie are soothingly pink-coated, but by contrast the protagonist in American Fiction is a blunt and self-destructive novelist. His work supposedly is not satiric enough nor Black enough for him to register success.

Barbie was heralded at the Golden Globes while American Fiction was snubbed. The latter still earned the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival, a SAG Awards Cast nomination and a spot on the AFI’s Top 10 Films of 2023.

If Wilder were around to see this year’s slate, I think he’d admire the seditious scientist in Poor Things,...

Amid consistent claims Barbie hates men, the fantasy comedy film's male co-writer offers a succinct response to critics who believe the acclaimed blockbuster is overly feminist.

Speaking with CBS News, Barbie scribe Noah Baumbach and his partner Greta Gerwig delved into the film's unprecedented success, its various themes, narratives and reception from critics. Gerwig invoked Greek playwright Aristophanes when defending Barbie against the man-hating claims from its detractors, saying, "I thought, 'Well, this is not man-hating any more than Aristophanes' Lysistrata (laugh) was man-hating,' which is-- does not sound like a sick burn when you say it out loud like that." However, Baumbach was less diplomatic. “I felt men could take it. I mean...come on,” Baumbach said.

Related Greta Gerwig Says Barbie Could've Been Eight Hours Long, Teases 'Incredible' Cut Scenes Barbie director Greta Gerwig says "a million things" were cut that she wishes could've stayed in.

Despite...

Barbie co-writer Noah Baumbach defends accusations of anti-men sentiment, stating "I felt men could take it. I mean, t-- come on." Greta Gerwig compares Barbie to Greek playwright Aristophanes' Lysistrata to argue against claims of man-hating. The film's creators intended to challenge gender stereotypes, promote empathy, and encourage understanding between genders, not promote hatred towards men.

Barbie co-writer Noah Baumbach responds to accusations that the hit fantasy comedy film has an anti-men sentiment. Directed by Greta Gerwig, the adaptation of Mattel’s iconic toy follows the titular character who travels to the real world from Barbieland with Ken, who is then radicalized by the patriarchy of the real world. Ken returns to Barbieland and convinces all the Kens to turn the once-matriarchal society into a patriarchy. Following the release of Barbie, many viewers began debating the intricate themes that the movie tried to explore, and some people asserted that the movie was anti-men.

Jane Campion, Damien Chazelle, Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Guy Nattiv joined a flash mob on the Venice Film Festival’s red carpet on Saturday in support of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in Iran.

They were among around 100 filmmakers, artists and pro-democracy activists joining the flashmob, which took place ahead of tonight’s gala screening of Maestro.

The group carried placards with portraits of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, whose death in police custody last September, after she was arrested for not wearing her veil correctly, sparked the protests.

There were also banners for Leila’s Brothers director Roustayi, who it emerged last month had been sentenced to six months in prison on charges of “anti-regime propaganda activity” for screening the family drama in Cannes in 2022.

Saeed Roustee had previously participated at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 in the Orizzonti section with Just 6.5 (Metri Shesho Nim).

The arrests are believed to...

"Hedwig and the Angry Inch" is a movie that really helped me come to terms with myself when I first saw it over 20 years ago. Back then, I wasn't very comfortable with my looks and I often felt self-conscious about my personality when talking to people I didn't know very well. The film's message of self-acceptance really struck a chord, enabling me to take a more positive view of who I was.

Created by its star John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" began life onstage as a hit off-Broadway production in 1998 before taking the leap to the big screen in 2001. The movie adaptation failed to replicate the success of the stage show, only making $3.6 million at the box office against a slim budget of $6 million. Since then, the film has become a modern cult classic, and several actors have portrayed the eponymous rocker on stage over the past two decades,...

Mubi the premier streaming service for curated independent films, has revealed its lineup for February. Among the eclectic selection of films coming exclusively to Mubi are “Dead Pigs”, the bold directorial debut by Birds of Prey director Cathy Yan and Pietro Marcello’s “Martin Eden”, a compelling adaptation of Jack London’s novel, starring Luca Marinelli. Mubi will also exclusively present Beginning, the striking feature debut by Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili, which has been selected as Georgia’s official selection for the 93rd Academy Awards, and Werner Herzog’s deeply personal documentary “Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin” featuring his late friend and travel writer Bruce Chatwin.

In February, Mubi is proud to partner with Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program to spotlight a collection of films made by Sundance Institute Fellows. Reflecting the support given to independent storytelling by artists of Indigenous descent, this special selection includes films such...

From Sundance and Rotterdam, two new indies make their digital release on our pages: stream them here. With film fests cancelled and postponed for the foreseeable future, Cineuropa is proud to present you a couple of festival darlings that toured the circuit in pre-pandemic times, and are just now celebrating their digital release. Brought to you in partnership with eyelet (read news), these titles can be watched directly through our pages. Sit down, and happy streaming. Birds (Or How To Be One) Hailing from the 2020 International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr), where it unveiled just a few months back, Birds (Or How To Be One) unspools as a meditation on our desire for freedom. The pitch? A nine-step guide on how to become a bird. Based on Aristophanes’s 5th century BC comedy The Birds - and on a present-day theatre production thereof - Babis Makridis’s third feature is an experimental,...

Making the classics hip for a new generation is a storytelling tradition nearly as embedded as the classics themselves: Screens and stages have been so flooded over the decades with updated, dressed-down interpretations of Shakespeare plays, or sundry Greek and Roman myths, that it’s tempting to label traditionalism the new revisionism. Even within this heavily tilled field, however, Esmé von Hoffman’s debut feature “Ovid and the Art of Love” feels eccentric and ambitious. The story of the ancient Roman poet Ovid, whose celebrated authorship of the “Metamorphoses” was followed by a much-debated banishment from Rome, hasn’t been overly mined by filmmakers: von Hoffman’s version, relocated to a semi-contemporary Detroit of concrete lots, college cliques and slam poetry nights, will be a curious introduction for some viewers.

This is an Ovid, then, who wears Converse chucks and a hoodie over his hessian robes — as one might just...

Days after calling for the film industry to boycott Georgia due to the state’s anti-abortion Heartbeat Bill, Alyssa Milano has taken her fight for women’s reproductive rights a step further by announcing a sex strike.

“Our reproductive rights are being erased,” the actress tweeted. “Until women have legal control over our own bodies we just cannot risk pregnancy. Join Me by not having sex until we get bodily autonomy back. I’m calling for a #SexStrike. Pass it on.”

Sex strikes date back to at least Aristophanes’ 411 BC comedy “Lysistrata,” in which the title character attempts to end the Peloponnesian War by calling on women from the warring city states to withhold sex until peace is negotiated. Spike Lee’s film “Chi-Raq” brought the concept to present-day Chicago as a means of drawing attention to the city’s gang violence.

“I will do everything in my power to...

Updated with more insults: As the clock ticked toward Sean Hannity’s Fox News Channel show telecast, in which he promises to disembowel ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for having made jokes about First Lady Melania Trump, he and Kimmel took their Twitter war up a notch.

In this latest round of insult-hurling, Hannity called Kimmel “a poor man’s Colbert.” Kimmel called Hannity “a poor woman’s Rachel Maddow.” A good time was had by all. And yes, this is how two grown men in the television industry defend Melania Trump and/or their right to make jokes about the First Lady of the United States:

Harvey Jr, you have over 100 writers (you are in last place) That’s all you have? #KeepUp. You are a poor man’s Colbert. #pervertkimmel https://t.co/7H0V2IYJEK

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) April 6, 2018

And you, a poor woman's Rachel @maddow (she's beating you bigly,...

Spike Lee’s satire on gun crime comes out shooting and doesn’t know when to stop

Brash, sexy, satirical and deeply flawed, Spike Lee’s latest picture is an updated spin on Aristophanes’s play Lysistrata. The classical Greek comedy is relocated to a Chicago nicknamed Chi-Raq for its gang violence, gun crime and ever-increasing body count. Teyonah Parris makes a forceful impression as the girlfriend of a gang leader. She starts a peace movement among women, persuading them to withhold sex until the men stop fighting and start negotiating. It’s a neat idea, delivered with a fly swagger. But this overlong picture is already repetitive and unfocused by the second act; by the third, it has made its point a thousand times over.

Continue reading...

MaryAnn’s quick take… Furious, funny, and deadly serious, this is an audacious, searing satire that swells into a raw, electrifying fantasy about how we might put aside savagery. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

A full year after it opened in the Us, Spike Lee’s latest film, the outraged and outrageous Chi-Raq, is finally opening in the UK. Yet after a summer of Black Lives Matter protests and racially charged politics on both sides of the Atlantic, it still feels entirely of the moment. In a Chicago so beset by violent death that it’s more like the ongoing war zone of Iraq than any city in the supposedly greatest country in the world should be, a child is caught in the crossfire of a gang shootout… and her death is the last...

The wives and girlfriends of Chicago gang members find a novel way to combat spiralling violence in Lee’s tactless, haranguing adaptation of Aristophanes

Making peace is about changing the narrative, they say, and Spike Lee just found a new narrative for the #blacklivesmatter debate. Or actually an extremely old one. With screenwriter Kevin Willmott, he has adapted Aristophanes’s comedy Lysistrata from 411Bc, about one woman’s mission to end the Peloponnesian war with a sex strike.

The scene is present-day Chicago, whose tough neighbourhoods are nicknamed Chi-Raq (pronounced “shy-rack”) in honour of their bullet-ridden similarity to Iraq, and the fact that the Us government spends more on reconstructing Middle East war zones than it would ever dream of spending on its own inner cities. There is in fact a generational debate in this film about whether the term “Chi-Raq” is empowering satire or cynical despair. Like all the dialogue,...

One Thing I Love Today is a daily column dedicated to putting a spotlight on some pop culture item worth your attention. After all, there's enough snark out there. Why not start every day with one quick shotgun blast of positivity? When people say "What movie is missing from the conversation if you think the Oscars were too white?" this year, the answer to that question, first and foremost, is Spike Lee's Chi-raq. And I am just as guilty of missing the boat as every member of the Academy. One of the saddest images in any film in recent memory is Jennifer Hudson scrubbing the blood of her dead 7-year-old out of the pavement of a Chicago sidewalk, and it is not, by any means, the best or most powerful moment in Spike Lee's latest remarkable film. Chi-raq is stylistically bold, and it uses a heightened theatrical reality...

Though presented as a modern day adaptation of Aristophanes’ play Lysistrata, steeped in Greek mythology, there’s something patently Shakespearian about Spike Lee’s latest production, Chi-Raq. Midsummer Night’s Dream springs to mind, with Samuel L. Jackson appearing as Puck, narrating proceedings with his indelible, dulcet tone, while the majority of the dialogue is presented in

The post Berlinale 2016: Chi-Raq Review appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Read More: First Reviews of 'Chi-Raq' Say It's Spike Lee's Most Exciting Movie in Years Starting today at 11:45am Est/8:45am Pst, you can watch a live stream of the Berlinale press conference for Spike Lee's "Chi-Raq." Lee is expected to attend the conference, as well as various cast members from his latest feature. Co-written with Kevin Willmont, the new Spike Lee joint is a modern day adaptation of Aristophanes' ancient Greek play "Lysistrata." Teyonah Parris stars as the eponymous character, who reacts to the murder of a child by a stray bullet by organizing a group of women against the ongoing violence in Chicago’s Southside. Her efforts create a movement that challenges the ideas of race, sex and violence in America and around the world. You can watch the live stream right here, on the official Berlinale Live Videos website (not...

For Amazon Studios' first original movie release, they agreed to finance Spike Lee's rhyming reworking of Aristophanes' classic Lysistrata, "Chi-Raq" (Lionsgate/Roadside, December 4), betting that the Brooklyn filmmaker was back in his agit-prop sweet spot from the days of "She's Gotta Have It," "Do the Right Thing" and "Bamboozled."  Indeed, "Chi-Raq" is ripped from the headlines of violence between young black males on Chicago's South Side. It's what you expect from Lee: vibrant, lively, idiosyncratic, engaging, musical, chaotic and bombastic. It's never dull. Dapper Samuel L. Jackson serves as the film's narrator/Mc/Greek chorus, as we follow wondrous beauty Lysistrata (Teyonah Parris of "Dear White People"), who loves her raucous sex with her gangsta man Chi-Raq ("Drumline" star Nick Cannon), but hates the gun violence his posse wrecks on the people of their neighborhood. Lee...

February may be the shortest month of the year, but the major streaming sites certainly haven't used that as an excuse to slack off. Perhaps motivated by the imminent Leap Day, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime are unleashing an absolute blizzard of new titles over the next four weeks — from a martial-arts sequel 16 years in the making, to a note-perfect new comedy series that's arriving just in time to cure (or inflame) those post-Valentine's Day blues. Here are our top 10 picks for what to watch in the next 29 days.

11.22.63 (Hulu,...

New films from Lee Tamahori and Anne Zohra Berrached also added.

The Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 11-21) has completed the line-up of its Competiton programme, of which 18 out of 23 will vye for the Golden and Silver Bears. A total of 19 titles of the films are world premieres.

Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq will receive its international premiere as part of the strand, but will play out of competition.

The film stars Nick Cannon, Teyonah Parris and Wesley Snipes, and is a modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, set against the backdrop of gang violence in Chicago.

Germany’s Anne Zohra Berrached, who premiered Two Mothers at the Berlinale’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino in 2013, returns with 24 Weeks (24 Wochen). The film centres on the dilemma faced by a woman who is already six months pregnant when she learns that her unborn child will have Down‘s syndrome as well as a serious heart defect...

After taking to Kickstarter in 2013 to raise funds for his pic Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus, Spike Lee ventured into new territory again in 2015 with the Amazon Studios release of Chi-Raq. Based on Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the passionately anti-gun-violence film was the inaugural feature to be fully financed and put in the theaters by the Jeff Bezos company along with Roadside Attractions. Reuniting the two-time Oscar-nominated and Peabody Award-winning director with Samuel…...

After discussing the year’s breakthrough directors, it’s time to traverse to the other side of the camera. Whether it’s their very first performances or a talent who’s been seen in a variety of features yet, for whatever reason, hadn’t been allowed to command the screen, this year’s breakthrough actors are an eclectic group. Ranging from some of the highest-grossing features of the year to minuscule independent dramas, check out our rundown of a dozen breakthrough actors that left the biggest impression on us in 2015.

Christopher Abbott (James White)

In the five months found within James White, our title character is at the most difficult chapter of his life thus far. Grieving the loss of his father and attempting to assist his ailing mother, the drama authentically depicts the brutality of the process. Commanding every scene of the film — and in most sequences, nearly all...

Spike Lee responded to Chance the Rapper's criticism of his new movie Chi-Raq by noting the rapper's father, Ken Williams-Bennett, works with Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel in an interview on MSNBC.

"Show me where he made a criticism about the mayor," Lee said of Williams-Bennett, who serves as Emanuel's deputy chief of staff and director of public engagement. "I think your findings will be surprising. He has not criticized the mayor."

In a string of recent tweets, Chance called Chi-Raq "goofy," "exploitive" and "problematic," and echoed sentiments that a...

There are few filmmakers out there with more of a personal touch than Spike Lee. The director is never more interesting than when a social issue has gotten his ire, with the recently released Chi-Raq being no exception. Lee can be a hit or miss artist, but he’s rarely boring, that’s for sure. With a career now featuring 25 theatrical titles (not to mention his work on television), he’s also far more prolific than folks seem to realize. As such (along with his impending honorary Oscar from the Academy), I wanted to spend a quick moment talking about him, especially since the precursor season prevented me from discussing Chi-Raq before it opened in limited release over the weekend… Chi-Raq is basically a modern day adaptation of Aristophanes’ ancient Greek play Lysistrata. Here, instead of Greece, it’s Chicago, with gang/gun violence being what inspires the women of Chicago (or,...

Spike Lee has come under fire from critics and Chicagoans alike for turning the Windy City's widespread issues with gun violence into a musical-comedy for his new film Chi-Raq, and now Chance the Rapper has added his voice to the chorus of detractors slamming the film. In a series of tweets, the Chicago native blasted the film, calling it "goofy," "exploitive and problematic."

"Let me be the one from Chicago to personally tell you we not supporting this film out here," Chance said of Chi-Raq Friday. "That shit get Zero love out here.

'Chi-Raq' with Teyonah Parris. 'Chi-Raq' movie review: The return of the Spike Lee of old The star of Spike Lee's Chi-Raq is an astounding young actress named Teyonah Parris (Dear White People); she plays Lysistrata – the name of the titular character in Aristophanes' comedy from about 411 Bce. That Greek play is about one woman's attempt to end the Peloponnesian War (a messy thing involving Athenians and Spartans, among others) by soliciting all Athenian women to withhold sex until peace is negotiated. It would have been a damn good idea to end a war. It was a great idea for a play. And it is a wonderful concept for a satirical film set amongst the very wars being fought on the streets of Chicago and in so many other cities around the world, here on the planet of angry men and their powerful guns. Scary boyfriend and city The Lysistrata...

Welcome to Outrage Watch, HitFix's semi-regular rundown of entertainment-related kerfuffles. Not anxious enough already? Get your fix of righteous indignation below, and stay posted for outrage updates throughout the week. The films of Spike Lee tend to provoke strong reactions, and the situation is no different with his latest effort, the provocatively-titled gun-violence satire "Chi-Raq." So who's outraged this time? Though the film has accrued a long list of critics in advance of its release, the highest-profile yet is Chicago-bred Mc Chance the Rapper, who in a vicious Twitter rant Friday charged the fantastical, destined-to-be-polarizing film for being an "exploitive" and "problematic" look at his native city's epidemic of gun violence: Let me be the one from Chicago to personally tell you we not supporting this film out here — Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) December 4, 2015 That shit get Zero love out here. Shit is goofy and it's a bunch of ppl...

Is it a good month in America for an antigun movie or what? Bitches, it’s always a good month in America for an antigun movie. The newest, Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq, might be the best ever. It’s sexy, brash, and potent — a powerful weapon in its own right. It’s an adaptation of Aristophanes’ 413 Bce antiwar satire Lysistrata, in which the title character — whose name means “army disbander” — convinces the women of Greece to withhold sex to get the men to stop fighting the Peloponnesian War. Lee shifts the battlefield from distant Sparta to the streets of Chicago, where young black males are busy killing young black males — along with unlucky bystanders, some of them children. The title is a fusion of Chicago and Iraq — although a prologue points out that fewer Americans have actually died in Iraq since the turn of the millennium. Rahm Emmanuel...

Photo credit: Parrish Lewis, Courtesy of Roadside Attractions and Amazon Studios

Spike Lee’s Chi-raq re-imagines Aristophanes’ ancient Greek comedy “Lystrata” as modern plea for peace in violence-torn Chicago. Chi-Raq is a term the director reportedly heard on the streets, used to compare violence-racked Chicago neighborhoods to war-torn Iraq. In the classic Greek play, the women on both sides of warring Sparta and Troy join together to end the war by staging a sex boycott. No sex for the men until there is no war. In Chi-raq, the Spartans and the Trojans are opposing gangs in a disadvantaged neighborhood, where their violent warfare is killing children in the streets.

It is a clever idea, moving this ancient comedy to Chicago’s bloody streets, using humor, music, sex and truth-telling to put a spotlight on the situation in these disadvantaged city neighborhoods. Sometimes a person just has to speak out, even if nothing will change,...

Chi-Raq

Written by Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee (based on the Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes)

Directed by Spike Lee

USA, 2015

With the number of homicides in Chicago exceeding the combined number of casualties in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars over the same period of time, Spike Lee is in a rabblerousing mood. His message in Chi-Raq is urgent, intermittently funny, and often heavy-handed. Undermined by a haphazard mix of melodrama and satire, Chi-Raq achieves its social objectives while faltering as a film. Ultimately, Lee has created a satire for people who don’t like satire. It’s a timely effort that will raise awareness through its passion but fade through its flaws.

It takes guts to make a satire based on a Greek play that no one can pronounce, comprised solely of rhyming couplets. In this case, Lee uses the Aristophanes’ comedy, Lysistrata, in which a determined woman organizes a...

Sexual Healing: Spike Lee’s New Joint Aims to Anoint

Provocateur Spike Lee continues to fling his ambition into surprising experimental formats and narratives. Following the box office failure of his 2008 war drama Miracle at St. Anna, Lee has branched out inventively, though his feature narrative products have not often received the same level of critical acclaim elicited by his early titles from the late 80s and early 90s when he was a lone representative of black independent cinema at the art house. After funding 2012’s Red Hook Summer out of pocket and controversially trawling Kickstarter for 2014’s Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (a remake of Bill Gunn’s 1973 classic Ganja & Hess), he’s back with his grandest platform in quite some time with Chi-raq, so named for the controversial moniker Chicago has earned due to the astronomical urban violence plaguing the metropolis’ South Side. Assembling an impressive cast, including...

Following Tuesday night's New York premiere of Spike Lee's Chicago gun violence film Chi-Raq —held hours after embattled Windy City mayor Rahm Emanuel fired police chief Garry McCarthy for his department's role in the 2014 shooting death of unarmed black teenager Laquan McDonald — the director led stars Wesley Snipes, John Cusack, Nick Cannon, and Teyonah Parris, among others, on a "march in solidarity" with Chicago (via Variety).

Based on the satirical, but righteously angry, story of Lysistrata, a 2,400-year-old Aristophanes comedy about a woman who tries to end the Peloponnesian...

Spike Lee‘s made his career by tackling, head-on, important socio-political issues revolving around race, inequality, and prejudice. With his latest entry, Chi-Raq, a title that evokes an intrinsic relationship between the midwest city and the middle east country, the NYC-based filmmaker is back with a furious vengeance. Creating a hybrid between a modern-day musical and a spoken-word poetry slam, this film embodies the essence of protest and captures perfectly the mood of countless frustrated Americans who attempt to affect change through demonstrations. It’s not a straightforward narrative, either, instead eschewing dramatic conventions for powerful vignettes that bring the important messages of the film to a boil.

Based loosely on Aristophanes’ ancient Greek play Lysistrata, Chi-Raq interweaves the thematic exposé of sexual relations from the original text with the epidemic of gang-war violence. The film opens with large bold red letters reading ‘This is an emergency” as the sounds of blistering alarms echo,...

Chi-Raq is a modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes. After the murder of a child by a stray bullet, a group of women led by Lysistrata organize against the on-going violence in Chicago’s Southside creating a movement that challenges the nature of race, sex and violence in America and around the world.

Starting with Pray 4 My City by Nick Cannon. YouTube that, it's not bad, I know you might not believe me. It's a powerful song during the opening credits where Cannon (Chi-Raq) smacks us right in the face, eventually showing violent statistics which should touch a nerve. Just a black screen with bold lyrics. The first character we meet is Samuel L. Jackson as Dolmedes who delivers a warning of the tale in store. Violence, in case you are unaware, has become synonymous with Chicago, Illinois. Within moments of our warning gunshots ring...

Spike Lee‘s controversial film “Chi-Raq” is set to arrive in theaters just as Chicago makes headlines for another horrifying shooting. “Chi-Raq,” a modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes, is set against the backdrop of soaring gang violence in Chicago. The Amazon Studios release debuts on Dec. 4 in select theaters, and will then be available on Amazon Instant Video shortly thereafter. Lee’s satirical take on gun violence stars John Cusack, Nick Cannon, Teyonah Parris, Samuel L. Jackson, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Hudson and Angela Bassett. Also Read: 'Chi-Raq' Review: Spike Lee Spins Sexual...

Read More: First Reviews of 'Chi-Raq' Say It's Spike Lee's Most Exciting Movie in Years Spike Lee's politically-charged "Chi-Raq" is earning the director some of his best reviews in over a decade, and now Amazon Studios and Roadside Attractions have released a new 90-second trailer, in addition to two clips that tease the powerhouse screen presence of lead Teyonah Parris and the film's rap-infused screenplay. Co-written with Kevin Willmont, the new Spike Lee joint is a modern day adaptation of Aristophanes' ancient Greek play "Lysistrata." Parris stars as the eponymous character, who reacts to the murder of a child by a stray bullet by organizing a group of women against the ongoing violence in Chicago’s Southside. In order to make the gangs put down their guns, Lysistrata begins a boycott that finds the women remaining abstinent. Featuring a star-studded supporting cast — Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes,...

I'm a huge fan of Greek tragedy, and I remain a fan of Spike Lee, despite some recent missteps in a few films. His latest, Chi-Raq, will be released in the Us on December 4th, and it looks pretty awesome, reminiscent of Do the Right Thing and Mo Better Blues in combining politics with music, though perhaps on a grander scale (and with a bigger budget).An adaptation of the Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, Chi-Raq is set in contemporary Chicago, where the murder of a child by a stray bullet serves as a rallying cry to the black women of the city. To battle the ongoing violence of the city's south side and make the men put down their guns, the women withhold sex. This...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Provocatively using Aristophanes' ever-timely 2,426-year-old play Lysistrata as a way to address the ongoing plague of shootings on the South Side of Chicago, Spike Lee serves up an odd gumbo teeming with political activism, broad melodrama, verse dialogue, rap music, history lessons, comedic caricature, moral guidance and steamy sex (later withheld) in Chi-Raq. Even if the now-veteran director lays everything on a bit thick, repeatedly makes many of the same points and lets things go on too long, he's still found a lively and legitimate way to tackle an urgent subject matter that other

read more...

Director Spike Lee is no stranger to controversy. Quite the contrary; it.s become a nearly inseparable part of who the man is. Sometimes it finds him, other times he is the catalyst behind it. His latest feature film is no exception. From its title to its subject matter, Lee will be drawing attention to the problem of violence in Chicago.s south side, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel is none to happy about it. The film, titled Chi-Raq a portmanteau of Chicago and Iraq, takes the classical play by Aristophanes, Lysistrata and transports it to modern day Chicago in an area where violence is out of control. In the original play Lysistrata organizes women to withhold sex from their military husbands in an attempt to bring an end to the Peloponnesian War. In Lee.s film the focus will be Chicago area gang violence. Needless to say a film that...

Here’s a first look at the official poster for Spike Lee’s Chi-raq, featuring Teyonah Parris. (via Indiewire’s Shadow & Act)

Watch the Music Video for “We Gotta Do Better” by Kevon Carter as heard in Chi-raq.

The movie stars Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Hudson, Teyonah Parris, D.B. Sweeney, Harry Lennix, Steve Harris, Angela Bassett, John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson.

Chi-raq is a modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes. After the murder of a child by a stray bullet, a group of women led by Lysistrata organize against the on-going violence in Chicago’s Southside creating a movement that challenges the nature of race, sex and violence in America and around the world.

Rated R for strong sexual content including dialogue, nudity, language, some violence and drug use.

Amazon Studios and Roadside Attractions will release Chi-raq in theaters December 4, 2015.

For more info:

http://chiraqthemovie.

With an issue as prevalent and ongoing as the violence in areas of Chicago, Spike Lee‘s new film Chi-Raq has already caused a stir — and it hasn’t even been released yet. The first trailer, which debuted earlier this week, featured unexpected humorous tone in certain sections, backed by the varied cast of Samuel L. Jackson, Wesley Snipes, Nick Cannon, Jennifer Hudson, Teyonah Parris, Angela Bassett, and, yes, even Dave Chappelle. The tone on display caused a bit of a controversy, and so the director is here to respond with his own trailer (really, just a collection of snippets), but first, an introduction.

“The trailer was released and there are very humorous moments in the trailer,” he says. “Now, some people are getting it twisted and thinking this is a comedy. Chi-Raq is not a comedy. Chi-Raq is a satire — and there’s a difference between humor and comedy.

Watch the trailer for Spike Lee’s Chi-raq.

The movie stars Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Hudson, Teyonah Parris, D.B. Sweeney, Harry Lennix, Steve Harris, Angela Bassett, John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson.

Chi-raq is a modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes. After the murder of a child by a stray bullet, a group of women led by Lysistrata organize against the on-going violence in Chicago’s Southside creating a movement that challenges the nature of race, sex and violence in America and around the world.

Rated R for strong sexual content including dialogue, nudity, language, some violence and drug use.

Amazon Studios and Roadside Attractions will release Chi-raq in theaters December 4, 2015.

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Chi-Raq Movie Trailer. Spike Lee‘s Chi-Raq (2015) movie trailer stars Samuel L. Jackson, Nick Cannon and John Cusack. Chi-Raq‘s plot synopsis: “A modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, set against the backdrop of gang violence in Chicago.” Spike Lee has made some of the Great American Films. Think Do The Right Thing (1989), think Summer of Sam […]...

Spike Lee is back and he’s making a statement.

The first trailer for his new film, Chi-Raq, takes us right into the racial tensions of modern America as only Lee can. The film stars Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Hudson, Teyonah Parris, D.B. Sweeney, Harry Lennix, Steve Harris, Angela Bassett, John Cusack, and Samuel L. Jackson.

The official synopsis is:

Chi-Raq is a modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes. After the murder of a Child by a stray bullet, a group of women led by Lysistrata organize against the on-going violence in Chicago’s Southside creating a movement that challenges the nature of race, sex and violence in America and around the world.

The film looks like it will make waves and Lee has assembled a strong cast to pull off this feat. It is also worth mentioning that this will be the first...

With little over a month until its release via Amazon Instant Video, we now have our first trailer for Spike Lee’s latest political satire Chiraq.

Coming by way of Amazon Studios and Roadside Attractions (via IMDb), Lee’s latest feature film as a timely and hard-pressing as ever, opening with lurid emergency message the grabs your attention with two firm hands and refuses to let go. Situated in Chicago, Illinois, the drama sheds light on the issue of violence and gun crime in the Windy City, and in case you hadn’t already guessed, the title itself is a play on the city’s name and the front lines of Iraq.

There’s more to Chiraq than meets the eye, though, as the director’s new creative venture acts as a modern-day adaptation of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes. The official logline describes the picture as so:...

Amazon Studios and Roadside Attractions have released the first trailer for Spike Lee’s latest political satire "Chi-Raq" which is based on the ancient Greek play "Lysistrata" by Aristophanes, set against the backdrop of gang violence in Chicago. The film stars Nick Cannon, Angela Bassett, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Hudson, Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack.

After the murder of a child by a stray bullet, a group of women led by Lysistrata organize against the on-going violence in Chicago's Southside creating a movement that challenges the nature of race, sex and violence in America and around the world.

Check out the trailer below.

"Chi-Raq" hits theaters on December 4 in limited release, then streams exclusively on Amazon.com.

Source: IMDb...

It wouldn’t be a Spike Lee film if there weren’t any controversy. “Chi-Raq,” the writer-director’s latest project, has been criticized by Chicago city officials, namely because the film’s title links the city to the Iraq war. “Homicides in Chicago, Ill., have surpassed the death toll of American special forces in Iraq,” says a voice in the new trailer, after the words “This Is An Emergency” blare on the screen. Lee brings a high-stakes, real-life situation to movie theaters, compelling us to take stock of rampant gun violence on the streets of Chicago and beyond. That Lee does so by using the framework of Aristophanes’ ancient Greek comedy “Lysistrata” is a testament to his creative brilliance. This story’s version of the heroine Lysistrata (the fiery Teyonah Parris) rallies the women on Chicago’s South Side to organize a sex strike with the aim of ending gang warfare,...

"Welcome to Chi-Raq! Land of pain, misery and strife." Amazon Studios and Roadside Attractions have debuted the official trailer for Chi-Raq, the new Spike Lee Joint that's hitting limited theaters this fall. Samuel L. Jackson narrates and introduces this film, and the full ensemble cast features Nick Cannon, Teyonah Parris, Anya Engel-Adams, Wesley Snipes, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson and Dave Chappelle. It's described as a modern adaptation of the ancient Greek play "Lysistrata" by Aristophanes, but it's actually a look at the violence and murders in Chicago, and how the people can fight back together. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Spike Lee's new film Chi-Raq, from IMDb (on YouTube): A modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, set against the backdrop of gang violence in Chicago. After the murder of a child by a stray bullet, a group of women led by...

Chi-Raq, Spike Lee’s latest joint, is an update of Aristophanes’ anti-war comedy Lysistrata, otherwise known as the play where all the women of Athens stop having sex with their husbands in an effort to bring the devastating Peloponnesian War to an end. Set in the modern day south Chicago Urban war zone nicknamed Chi-Raq (as in “Iraq”) the story sees a group of women organize against the on-going violence after the murder of a child by a stray bullet, by withholding…...

Amazon Studios released the first trailer for Spike Lee‘s “Chi-Raq” on Tuesday. The film is based on the Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes. Samuel L. Jackson serves as the chorus telling the story of a “gorgeous Nubian sister” name Lysistrata (Teyonah Parris) who convinces the women of Chicago to withhold sex until the men of the city agree to stop the violence that is plaguing it. In addition to Parris and Jackson, the film stars Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Angela Bassett and Jennifer Hudson. Lee directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Kevin Willmott. Also Read: Spike Lee Slams 'Misinformed'...

Surprise! A new Spike Lee joint is ready, coming into theaters in the middle of Oscar season. Amazon Studios came on board to finance Lee’s “Chi-Raq” earlier this year, but few thought the drama would be released in 2015. It's a movie that looks at the widespread murder in Chicago —though it's also said to include comedy and musical elements— and Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate recently stepped up to partner with Amazon to release the film theatrically. Here’s the official synopsis: Chi-Raq is a modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes. After the murder of a Child by a stray bullet, a group of women led by Lysistrata organize against the on-going violence in Chicago’s Southside creating a movement that challenges the nature of race, sex and violence in America and around the world. Read More: The Films Of Spike Lee: A Retrospective "Chi-Raq" stars Nick Cannon,...