Chi-Raq (2015)
Storyline
A modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, set against the backdrop of gang violence in Chicago.
Directors
Writers
Cast
Samuel L. Jackson, Steve Harris, Angela Bassett, Anthony Chisholm, Wesley Snipes, Teyonah Parris, Nick Cannon, Harry Lennix, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Dave Chappelle, John Cusack, Al Palagonia, D. B. Sweeney, Duane Sharp, Jennifer Hudson, La La Anthony, David Patrick Kelly, Eric Ian, Wade Forrest Wilson, Ilfenesh Hadera, Curtis Gordon, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Anya Engel-Adams, Michelle Mitchenor, Ebony Joy, Felicia Pearson, Val Warner, Sarunas J. Jackson, Corey Hendrix, William Gines, Quincy Griffin, Chantley Lorraine Ward, M.J. Carey, Samuel Robinson, Anthony Fitzpatrick, Jackie Taylor, Gina Breedlove, Darren Jones, George Willborn, Lamar Greer, Erica Watson, Latisha Hyman, Victor Mensah, Natasha Forouzannia, Sammy Joe Temple, Emily Boakye Agyemang, Lena Owens, Eric Wilkins, T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh, Erin Allen Kane, Yaneisha Franklin, Tiffany Laos, Dusan Sanford, Willie Middleton, Rinska Carrasco, Patricia Urbonas Clark, Michelle Shelton Huff, John Westford Jr., Alex Zelenka, Sherod Ogletree, Brandon Bowens, Muhammad Sanders, Epic Scon, Michael Czerniawski, Jay Washington, Jermaine Mctizic, Lauren Candela, Aj Brander, Kevin Tillett, Matthew Salter, Hans Dieter Wolff
Trailer
Reviews
100
While formally quite different from his more universally-respected early work, Chi-Raq has the exuberance and wit you’ll find in Do The Right Thing and Crooklyn. It’s the best film he’s made in a very long time.
100
Village Voice
Chi-Raq is a marvel. It's Lee resurrecting his voice — angry, impassioned, and funny as hell — right when we need to hear it.
88
Chicago Sun-Times
It’s a shattering, thunderous wake-up alarm, a call to lay down arms, a gutsy social satire and a highly stylized work of fiction that sometimes feels as accurate and sobering as the crime reporting you see on the front page of this newspaper.
88
A Spike Lee joint in the urgent sociopolitical register of Radio Raheem's boombox—a call to arms that's also a call to disarm.
87
If the film’s pinning much of the world’s problems to sex at times seems excessive, silly or reductive, Lee justifies it with moments of unexpected grace.
