A "don't miss" digital, DVD and Blu-ray debut: Spike & Kevin's daring and delightful CHI-RAQ

TrustMovies covered this terrific and surprising movie -- the best film Spike Lee has made in a long, long while -- when it opened in theaters for a limited run early last month. The screenplay, a treasure of smart, sassy rap poetry, is co-authored by Kevin Willmott and Mr. Lee. Now that it's out on Blu-ray, DVD and digital formats, I've seen it twice more, and can attest to its being even better than I formerly thought (my earlier review can be found here).

Yet it has been hugely overlooked by many critics, by the Academy, and certainly by audiences. CHI-RAQ is tremendously entertaining, serving both its source -- Aristophanes' Lysistrata -- and today's heavily multicultural audience supremely well. Given the chance, it will entertain white audiences (at least those non-Trump supporters who possess some intelligence), black audiences, young, old, and those who know the Greek comedies, as well as those who don't. Its theme could not be more timely, and the performances, from the leads to the small supporting roles, are lip-smackingly good. Miss this one at your peril. It will be talked about -- and enjoyed -- for years to come.

From Amazon Studios, it's available now via Amazon on digital streaming, DVD and Blu-ray -- for purchase or rental.

Diane Bell explores women, class and violence in her sophomore effort, BLEEDING HEART

TrustMovies must admit that watching BLEEDING HEART, a new film written and directed by Diane Bell, can often seem like a stretch. Overall though, this is the kind of stretch that's good for you -- rather like that of the palm tree able to bend with the wind instead of breaking in two. Also, it stars two good actresses, one of whom, Jessica Biel, I go out of my way to see in just about anything she does. Ms Biel, along with Jake Gyllenhaal, even saved David O. Russell's Nailed (aka Accidental Love) from total obscurity.

Filmmaker Bell, shown at left, has tackled a disturbing set of subjects -- including feminism, class, violence; parentage, prostitution and yoga; drugs, friendship and love -- and then created a scenario in which all these come into play. If this occasionally makes for a few more contrivances and coincidences than we might wish, the movie still manages to work well enough to get us to its crackling and seemingly inevitable finale. In addition to the unusual situation Ms Bell has set up and the pretty decent dialog she's put in the mouths of her cast, it's that cast itself that does the movie proud, helping carry the film to fruition, while forcing us to consider all the problematic possibilities along the way. Once set in motion, and given the characters on view, the plot here can pretty much go only in one direction.

Early on in Bleeding Heart, one of our two heroines, May, played by Biel (above), hones in on the other one, Shiva, played by Zosia Mamet (below). We soon learn why, and the reason will probably prove either the deal-breaker or the deal-maker for most viewers. It becomes, in any case, the force that drives May onwards, pushing through Shiva's attempts to stall or derail it,

and leading to further and further confrontations with Shiva's pimp boyfriend (well-played with a smart combination of intelligence, style and ferocity by Joe Anderson), below, left). The only important remaining cast members include Kate Burton (as May's cold, adopted mom), Edi Gathegi (as May's business partner/boyfriend) and Harry Hamlin as a wealthy "john."  Each is first-rate, offering a performance that adds luster to the proceedings.

Finally it is Ms Bell's concept and execution that, despite its occasional overly-schematic feel, brings the movie home. It is bracing to see a film that attempts to meld feminism, class and violence with nature and nurture. And Biel and Mamet make a fine pair of protagonists: bouncing off each other believably and with the necessary finesse, offering up character arcs that move in opposite directions, bringing these two very different women together in an inseparable way.

Bleeding Heart (nicely ironic title, that!) -- from Gravitas Ventures and running a swift 80 minutes -- after being available On-Demand and Digitally since early November, opens in a very limited theatrical run this Friday, on the date, at the theaters, and in the cities shown below.

Spike Lee's back in form again with his--and Kevin Willmott's--Lysistrata take-off, CHI-RAQ

To get right to the point, CHI-RAQ is the most successful and entertaining Spike Lee movie to get a theatrical release in, well, decades. This is particularly good news for us fans of Mr. Lee who had pretty much given up on him in the wake of misfires the likes of his Clockers and 25th Hour adaptations or full-out disasters such as Bamboozled, She Hate Me and Miracle at St. Anna. Sure, Chi-Raq is full of those not-so-hot Lee hallmarks (it hammers home its theme from first moment to last, it's too long, and it's repetitive) but it's also so full of Lee's strengths as a filmmaker -- passion, energy and spot-on casting -- that it barrels through one's objections with speed and gusto.

TrustMovies can't claim to know for certain who did what on this film, but I would take an educated guess that Lee's (the director is shown at right) screenwriting collaborator here -- Kevin Willmott of that ace mocku-mentary, C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America -- had a lot to do with how successful Chi-raq turns out to be. First off, the film is written in, well, poetry. Now, before you start thinking "Molière, as translated by Richard Wilbur," let me puncture that balloon. The movie's mostly written as rap. But it's the words only, unaccompanied by the usual crap "beat" that beats this would-be music into mindlessly dead submission. And this is lively, smartly written rap poetry, every bit as profane, dirty and funny as the original play.

Play? As in theater piece? Yes, Chi-Raq is also based loosely (but close enough for jazz) on Aristophanes' Lysistrata -- that's right: the one where the women withhold their sexual favors until the guys stop making war -- and it takes place in today's Chicago, dubbed Chi-Raq (rhymes with Iraq), a city where black-on-black gang violence has reached a level so high that the women folk take matters into their own hands (and other body parts) to stop the carnage.

Chi-Raq is also the name of the movie's non-hero, a rock star/gang man played by Nick Cannon, (two photos up) whose woman, the knock-your-socks-off beautiful and sexy Teyonah Parris (Mad Men's Dawn Chambers), just above, has had enough. So she persuades everyone from her friends (and even some enemies) to the local prostitutes to join her No Peace, No Pussy movement.

The event that sets all this off is the gang-related drive-by shooting that kills an innocent child, the daughter of Irene, played by Jennifer Hudson, who gets a good song to sing (yes, the movie occasionally morphs, Bollywood style, into a musical). In the supporting cast pop up everyone from a strong-willed neighbor (Angela Bassett, above, center) and Chi-Raq's nemesis, Cyclops, essayed by good-to-see-him-in-a-humorous-role-again Wesley Snipes, to the local minister (John Cusack) and a terrific one-man Greek chorus, played by the indispensable Samuel L. Jackson (below).

All these actors know how to handle poetry and make it fall off their lips like dialog. Mr. Cusack's moving and vital sermon (below) is the only lengthy period in the movie -- that I noticed, anyway -- in which the screenplay in not in rap poetry. The sermon works beautifully and angrily (Cusack is at his usual best) because it's the most serious part of the film, and in fact, the very reason for its being.

Lee puts his flamboyance to mostly excellent use here, bringing his passion for this subject to full bloom in both the comedy and tragedy sections (Lysistrata's conquest of the military and the males bemoaning their fate at the local strip club are two of the movie's best comedy scenes). Lee's energy and commitment allow the comic and tragic to meld much better than you might expect. If they don't quite coalesce at all times, there's enough merit in what does work to make the movie as a whole work, too.

Funny, entertaining, moving -- and timely as death -- Chi-Raq is Mr. Lee's most daring and accomplished film in quite some years. From Amazon Studios together with Roadside Attractions, the movie opens tomorrow, Friday, December 4, in major cities all over the country. To learn the theater nearest you, simply click here, then enter your zip and you're all set (if you're near a big city, that is). Otherwise, you can probably bet that the film will hit Amazon's streaming service eventually.

The photo of Mr. Lee (second from top) is by 

Stephen Lovekin, courtesy of Getty Images. 

Chico Colvard's moving shocker FAMILY AFFAIR is exactly that -- and in so many surprising ways

Since viewing, via Netflix streaming, FAMILY AFFAIR, the all-about-my-dysfunctional-family documentary by Chico Colvard, TrustMovies has been thinking about the film ever since, wondering why -- among many other topics for discussion -- this 2010 movie has not received wider acclaim and much more popularity. It is a remarkably brave endeavor, for both the filmmaker and his many family members, who contributed to the documentary with their honest and straight-forward interviews about a subject that is not all that often discussed, and certainly not with the truthfulness and attempt at genuine understanding that is found here. The film is about family violence and incest, where these comes from and how they move from one generation to the next (we see four generations here).

The reason, I suspect, that Family Affair is not better known, is that it's simply too strange, surprising and complex in what it shows and tells us about a subject that is usually handled in the most broad, obvious, single-note and knee-jerk manner. The tale the film tells, while it may seems stagger-ingly "original," is probably not unlike many others out there. The difference can be found in the details, of course, but also in the deci-sion of Mr. Colvard (shown at left) and his siblings, father and other relatives to not only "spill the beans" but then to try to figure out what those beans add up to and why they turned out the way they did.

Now, Chico Colvard, it should be said straight out, is no psychologist. Nor is he any brilliant filmmaker. He is simply a man who has tried the best he can to bring to light the story of his family. His "best" turns out to be plenty good enough, for this movie will stay with you and, if you watch it with others, provide reams of discussion. When Chico was ten years old -- with thanks, he feels to the old Chuck Connors TV show Rifleman that he loved watching -- the boy took a gun belonging to his father and shot one of his sisters several times in the leg. This was not any kind of "anger release," it seems, but more an accident in which the boy misunderstood the reality of a gun (and just one more reason, though the movie does not state this, for better gun control).

The incident, which drew the police to the home, also brought to light the father's violence and sexual abuse of the three sisters (Chico himself was not abused physically nor sexually). What happened after, and why -- to the children's mother (a white German woman the black father had married while in the military service abroad), to the children, and to the father himself -- is riveting and rich in history, social and otherwise.  What has happened to the extended family, meanwhile, is every bit as odd and amazing. Or maybe not, when you stop to think about what family means and how much so many of us want it in our lives, come hell or high water.

How the people we see here have accommodated "family" -- through abuse, guilt, payback and self-hurt, among other reactions -- makes for one hell of a story, fractured as it is. Colvard himself can't make complete sense of it, understand or even empathize totally with the many different viewpoints we see and hear. Who -- save an all-seeing, all-knowing deity -- could? But he gives all this to us, raw and undigested, and simply asks that we try to understand. The great amazement and strength of this 80-minute movie is that somehow we do.

Family Affair -- a don't-miss documentary -- is available now via Netflix streaming. Miss it, and you will miss one of the more unusual family stories of our times.

An agenda-free gun doc? In A GIRL AND A GUN, Cathryne Czubek comes pretty close.

Wow. A documentary all about guns (and the ladies who lunch on them) that either does not have a pro or con agenda or seeks to bury it far enough below the surface that maybe we won't notice one lurking about. It could be that A GIRL AND A GUN -- which may or may not be deliberately quoting Jean-Luc Godard's famous (and famously dumb) statement, "All you need for a film is a girl and a gun," which, like so much of Godard's verbiage and film-making is given immediate obeisance, when a hoot and the boot would be more appropriate -- is simply exploring the question and history of women and guns in the USA. If only this had been done this a bit better.

The movie -- directed, co-produced and co-written by first-timer Cathryne Czubek (shown at right) and edited and co-written by Amanda Hughes -- is all over the place and back again, as it introduces us to a whole bunch of women, beginning with a few who whisper sweet-nothings in our ear about their weapons: "My best friend, my first boyfriend," notes one, fondling her firearm. "It's owning my womanhood!" insists another. God help us. But then we meet some more gals and get to a point of some intelligent and nuanced statements and feelings.

One attractive blond woman, Robin (above and below), who teaches Tai Chi, and whom we visit time and again throughout the film, starts with a more-or-less pro-gun attitude (she needs it to ward off a heavy-set ex-boyfriend who has already broken into her apartment). Her response is understandable and sad, but eventually Robin finds alternate ways to "arm" herself and others.

Along the way we meet a young woman with an infant who has actually used her gun to kill an intruder. She looks and acts like a basket case (but as this was filmed very close to the time of the killing, we shouldn't be too surprised).

We get history -- from Annie Oakley to women during WWII, the famous and crazy J. Edgar Hoover to those venomous female killers from the B movies of the 40s and 50s. Hollywood did and does have a habit of connecting its phallic firearms to big boobs (and big hair) and photographing its pretty women in poses that no real gun user would ever maintain. We're offered some tangy, good-old-gal music along the way, see a fashion show of frilly camouflage clothing (below), and then we meet a mom for gun control and her paralyzed-for-life daughter, left that way as a victim of gunfire.

Visiting a prison, we encounter an inmate who, well over a decade ago, killed her girlfriend in an argument with a gun. As she relives these few moments, it seems clear that, had she not had that gun, the girlfriend would be alive and she'd not be a prisoner. All this is anecdotal, at best, though occasionally we're given some stats and figures to go with the women we meet and their stories. And throughout much of the movie, the tone is oddly and inappropriately light-hearted.

By film's ends (it's a short one) we're pretty much ready to admit that the American woman's relationship to the gun is more complex that a simple yes or no. Though what we've really learned from all this is questionable; we could probably have figured it out on our own. And, really, given the movie's 75-minute length, there's just too much showing off of those gun collections (though gun lovers will probably cream over all this).

A Girl and A Gun opens today for one-, two-, or three-day runs in several cities around the country: click here to see all scheduled playdates, cities and theaters). In New York City, it opens Friday for a week's run at the Quad Cinema, and in the Los Angeles area, look for it at Laemmle theaters in Santa Monica, Pasadena and Claremont on July 6 and 7 only.