>>REVIEW
DAVE CHAPPELLE’S BLOCK PARTY
STARRING Dave Chappelle, The Fugees, Mos Def, The Roots
DIRECTED BY Michel Gondry
Opens Friday, March 3
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In September of 2004, Dave Chappelle invited 5,000 people to attend a "Block Party" featuring performances from some of today’s premier hip hop artists at an unspecified location in New York. Using the 1973 documentary Wattstax as a guideline, director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) presents a mixture of footage from the concert, its preparation, and pontifications from Chappelle and the musicians. The result is undeniably joyous, even if it doesn’t quite reach the heights of the best documentaries in the genre.
After a brief introduction from Comedy Central’s $50-million dollar man, Gondry doesn’t waste time getting to the music, showing the first concert footage less than 15 minutes into the film. Although none of the film is shown in chronological order, it does have some sense of progression. The beginning shows Chappelle handing out "golden tickets"to people in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio, who range from an entire university marching band to shy senior citizens. The film then shows Chappelle selecting a venue to hold the event and booking the surrounding areas before concentrating on rehearsal footage and interviews with those involved.
Although there is a definite political undercurrent to the film, dealing with race relations, societal structure and critical thinking with regard to America’s overall political climate, the tone is one of celebration. Although most of the performers have a message, they want the audience to have a good time more than anything else, and their exuberance is infectious.
For both the concert and backstage footage, Gondry adopts a rough, cinéma- vérité style that lets the event speak for itself. There is no heavy-handed narration, slick MTV style camera work, or even titles explaining the when and where of what’s onscreen. The camera work and editing is raw yet professional, lending the performances a visceral power reminiscent of concert films like Monterey Pop and the aforementioned Wattstax. The Roots provide the instrumentation for most of the performers, and are in fine, funky form. Highlights include Mos Def (both as MC and straight man to Chappelle), a passionate Jill Scott and the reunited Fugees, who appropriately close the concert.
Chappelle is fantastic throughout the film, which catches him after "Rick James bitch!" endeared him to Caucasian frat boys everywhere and before his much-publicized breakdown, and he makes even relatively serious discussions about race, society and music hilarious.
The only thing missing from the film is the feeling that a truly historic event is being presented. Films like Monterey Pop, Woodstock and Wattstax presented zeitgeist-defining events, and that historical importance was felt in the documentaries of those events along with the great music. Block Party simply presents a good time, albeit one amped up to a considerable degree.
In the end, the film is much like the event depicted. Perhaps not an earth-shaking event, but a hell of a good time nonetheless. |
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