Dir. Michel Gondry, 2006, USA, 103 mins
Starring: Dave Chappelle, The Fugees, Kanye West, Mos Def, Erykah Badu
Review by Richard Mellor
Some wonderfully warm moments touch fists with premium, live hip hop in this most feel-good of summer releases. Though the top-quality bill provides reason enough to visit the cinema for fans of the genre, the happy sight of celebrities simply brightening the lives of so many people deserves to attract other viewers. In fact, so positive is the message here that anyone who can so much as tolerate Talib Kweli or make do with Mos Def is advised to visit the cinema with haste.
As you may guess, this is a film about a ‘block party’ (where an American ‘block’ is closed to traffic and crammed with people having fun) organised by comedian Dave Chappelle. Documenting the build-up to the party and the event itself, and skippered by Eternal Sunshine… director Michel Gondry (a busy man of late), the camera grants us privileged access into Chappelle’s movements during this chaotic time, as he spreads the word, jokes around and conducts intimate interviews with the stars he has recruited.
The event arose from a simple idea of Chappelle’s, part selfish, part generous. He decided to put lots of his favourite musicians (mostly New York-based) on a Brooklyn stage and let lucky attendees see them for free. The first minutes of this film monitor the final days beforehand: Chappelle drives around, merrily announcing the show on a megaphone in New York, after handing out tickets to an entire junior marching band back in his native Ohio, cueing jubilant scenes.
Once Gondry’s documentary begins to present the party itself, the production becomes similar to a music video; interspersed with outtakes from the likes of Kanye West, Erykah Badu and Dead Prez are episodes with Chappelle. Between artists, he amuses the crowd; he hangs out at a kids’ community centre and plays with the children and, of course, he chats with some of hip hop’s biggest names.
Jill Scott waxes lyrical about how Erykah Badu inspired her sound. Chappelle talks to former allies of Notorious B.I.G about the rapper’s infamous murder and the terrible effects it had; Wyclef Jean conducts a singalong with lucky youngsters, then talks with Pras and Lauryn Hill about the history of the Fugees. It is this very block party where the Fugees briefly reformed for the first time in seven years.
Chappelle is an engaging character, as thoughtful and interested as he is determined to amuse. He harnesses his ability to make people laugh in the best way: that laughter equates to joy, a happy moment or two. In a quieter, candid moment he tells the camera that music and comedy are similar schools – both require timing, rhythm and the power of vocal delivery. What is apparent in this film is that both can bring temporary happiness and distraction, too.
One majestic moment occurs when Chappelle martyrs himself as a human beatbox, providing a restaurant worker with the chance to demonstrate his propensity for rapping. Ellen Kuras’ camera wants to dwell on Chappelle, but reluctantly it switches attention to the waiter. While he performs, his co-workers touchingly look on with bewilderment and admiration - they had no idea of his talents. It’s a scene of pure glee.
But, let’s be honest, the reason to see this movie is clearly for the music on display. There’s good news here: each artist gets decent, uninterrupted playtime inside and the offerings are refreshingly diverse, at least in hip hop terms. Contrast the deep mutterings of Dead Prez, the vivacious soul sound of Jill Scott and the blessed vibes of the reunited Fugees. A rarer-than-rare performance of Killing Me Softly is possibly worth the entrance money alone.
There is the occasional, predictable slip to more traditional and less welcome hip hop subjects – guns’n’slums, who killed B.I.G, the emancipation of the black man – all worthy topics of debate at other times, but all slightly scarring a film that does its best work by making hip hop more accessible and less angry. But predominantly, gloriously, the focus here is on the dual abilities of comedy and music to improve our lives. Back outside, the world seems a more promising place after some time spent with Dave Chappelle.
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