This is the eighth in my series of favorite 2006 reviews. Note: these are my favorite reviews of the year, not my favorite movies. I ll reveal that top10 on New Year s Day.
Concert films are almost always boring, self-indulgent wastes of celluloid designed to flatter an aging star’s ego. The rare exceptions fall into two categories. They capture the zeitgeist in some culturally significant way (Woodstock, Jazz on a Summer Day) or they’re the product of a strong director and an artist willing to play along (The Last Waltz, Stop Making Sense).
Dave Chappelle’s Block Party doesn’t quite measure up to those classics, though it comes close, and it does so by being both culturally significant and wildly entertaining.
The most obvious parallel is Wattstax. That legendary 1973 concert film combined footage from a host of soul greats (Isaac Hayes, the Staples Singers, and Rufus Thomas) with political commentary from the stage and interviews done with Watts residents.
In 2004, Dave Chappelle set out to create something similar, I suspect. Riding high on the success of his brilliant Comedy Central show, he had the clout to invite almost any black artist, so he hand-picked a series of acts to play at his block party: Kanye West, Dead Prez, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Mos Def, The Roots, and a reunited Fugees. Then he set up a stage in a corner of the Bed-Stuy neighborhood, arranged for some security, and invited thousands of people to join him.
The movie doesn’t start out in Brooklyn, though. Instead, it begins in Chappelle’s home town of Dayton, Ohio, where he’s personally arranging for several busloads of people to join the party.
These encounters confirm what I’ve often suspected the Dave Chappelle on tv isn’t much different than the Dave Chappelle in real life. He’s hilarious, charming, and extraordinarily charismatic. He has a way of interacting with people young and old, black and white that makes you smile.
And if the movie had never made it to Brooklyn, that would’ve been ok.
Note, I didn’t say that it would’ve been great. Great is what you get when you put some of the hottest artists with an incredible house band, and then turn director Michel Gondry loose.
Gondry is best known for his movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but he first made his mark with music videos by Bjork and the White Stripes, and he has a wonderful eye for juxtaposing sound and image. Block Party is edited so beautifully that each musical number builds in intensity, switching from close ups of the artists to long shots of the crowd to medium shots of the musicians interacting. My personal favorite is a Jill Scott song (“You Got Me”) where she’s joined on the chorus by Erykah Badu.
But West’s performance is blistering, and the numerous shots of The Roots drummer ?uestlove (pronounced Questlove) are always enjoyable. In fact, the only disappointing performance might be The Fugees, though that may be due to unrealistic expectations.
Gondry also alternates nicely between concert footage, back-stage conversations, and pre-party preparations. It’s in those last two that Chappelle shines (though he also has a couple great bits on stage).
We see him talking with the people who own the abandoned warehouse behind the stage. We see Chappelle hanging out with the kids in a local day care center. We see him, in what seems to be a spur of the moment decision, inviting a local college marching band from Dayton to be part of the festivities in New York.
As the movie moves through its 100 minutes, its focus shifts more to the music, but the behind-the-scenes material, including moments of the various artists practicing, always serves as a counterpoint.
This behind-the-scenes footage also provides the political thrust of the film. Obviously, putting Dead Prez and The Roots onstage is likely to result in some political statements (as does a short speech by Fred Hampton, Jr.
), but that comes through much more clearly in the conversations away from the crowd. That the movie ends with Wyclef John leading the aforementioned college band in a rendition of his song “If I Were President” makes a political statement as well. Still, those hoping for a groundbreaking Black Power summit should probably look elsewhere.
This is clearly not Bush country, but it’s also not a call for revolution.
No, what it is is a gathering. A gathering of relatively like-minded people celebrating their music and what they have in common.
That Chappelle and Gondry are able to make us feel part of the festivities is what makes Dave Chappelle’s Block Party so satisfying.
News RSS