Dave Chappelle's Block Party

Whether you press the play button because you’re a diehard fan of the record breaking Chappelle’s Show, a film guru in love with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry, or you just want to see a collaboration of some of the greatest hip-hop and R&B performers of our time (complete with the reunion of The Fugees) – it doesn’t matter – you will sit there with a smile on your face stretching from ear to ear the entire time. Part comedy, part documentary and part concert, there is something for everyone in Dave Chappelle’s Block Party.

 

The film begins with Dave Chappelle handing “golden tickets” to his mystery Brooklyn block party, to residents of Dayton, Ohio.  With promises to provide transportation there and back, he invites the old and the young, whites and blacks, and fans and strangers.  With no real understanding of the event, the invitees agree to attend nonetheless, completely oblivious to the artistic collaboration they are about to see.  From then on, Dave Chappelle’s Block Party cuts back and forth from stories of the audience, comedic touches from Dave Chapelle, and performances from Kanye West, The Roots, Common, Lauryn Hill, Most Def, Jill Scott, John Legend, Erykah Badu, Dead Prez, Talib Kweli, and The Fugees. 

During his interview with Time Magazine in May of 2005, Dave admits, "I want to be well rounded, and the industry is a place of extremes."  This statement alone may have been the direction behind Dave Chappelle’s Block Party.  For two hours, Chappelle works to forget the industry, to leave the money and (most of) the privilege behind.  By bringing these artists, like Lauryn Hill, and even himself, who have so often shown in an extreme light within the industry’s context, he made them human again.  He, quite literally, provided the venue to allow them to do what they started out loving with absolutely no strings attached.

On the other hand, many of the artists that performed are considered “underground” not “mainstream”.  They are not subjected to the extreme industry standards and expectations that Dave Chappelle relates to most realistically.   Academic author (with a focus on hip hop culture), Michael Eric Dyson says, “for many black and white Americans, hip hop culture crudely symbolizes the problems of urban black youth”.  Dave Chappelle and his film introduces new argument, suggesting that it is not hip hop culture that creates problems and violence within black and white youth – but maybe mainstream industry hip hop.  Sure, Chappelle is a fan of each of the artists that he selected to be a part of this performance and that is why he asked them – but is it merely coincidental that most of these artists are not heard on “Jammin’ 94.5 FM”?

In the midst of his mysterious trip to Africa and his refusal of a $50 million deal with Comedy Central; Chappelle managed to “bring it back home” with a film that gave you the funny and crude comedian fans know and love, without being self-indulgent.   Just as quickly as the screen pans to Chappelle cracking jokes about blacks, whites, and Mexicans, it pans to blue collar workers in rural Ohio, an old couple in Brooklyn who built their house from the ground up, and a college marching band that probably never thought they’d step outside of Dayton, much less perform Jesus Walks for Kanye West himself.   I watched the film with refreshing ease, mirroring the spontaneity of the documentary and of Chapelle with his guard down.  Of course there are the “Chappelle Show” moments, and there had to be. But through the musical collaboration that he composes and his attention to the surrounding artistic elements of his production you see Dave Chappelle as a down-to-earth fan and supporter of artistic creativity through all mediums.

“This is the concert I have always wanted to see, all of these people, before I ever met them, I was a fan of theirs.”  – Dave Chappelle

The Secret Life of the American Teenager

With the success of films like Juno, the spiked ratings of television drama series 90210 with the pregnancy of one of its lead characters, the very real stories in the news about the pregnancy pact in Gloucester, MA, and the shots of Jamie Lynn Spears with her hunk of a boyfriend and balloon of a belly – it should really be no shock that a television series tiled The Secret Life of the American Teenager might be a good market to hit.

ABC Family’s newest series tells ‘the secret life’ of Amy Juergens, a 15-year-old french horn-playing band geek, the loss of her virginity to the drum-playing not-so-much-band geek, and the discovery of her pregnancy because of it. In the opening scene, we see her sneak a pregnancy test into her country home with the big back yard, past the pot roast that her mother, played by Molly Ringwald (the epitome of the American teenager back in the day) made her.

Created by Brenda Hampton, also the creator of the WB’s ever-popular 7^th Heaven, The Secret Life of the American Teenager decides to focus on one specific issue or obstacle (pregnancy) underlined by religious tones – instead of a different one each episode.

While the television show may create an audience by its intriguing titles, or the return of Molly Ringwald to the screen – it cannot go unnoticed that the series is basically an anti-intercourse lesson.

Every character, regardless of their stance on sex, is miserable because of it. Pregnant leading lady (ehem, girl) is pregnant because of it, and in turn, her two best friends are completely stressed out. Amy’s sudden love interest, Ben, (Ken Baumann) is miserable because he can’t find anyone to have sex with. Ricky (Daren Kagasoff), the father of her unborn child, we abruptly discover, is miserable because of his sexual abuse from his father as a child. Christian “jesus freak” Grace (Megan Park) loses her boyfriend in the pilot episode because she had made a promise to abstinence (Jonas boys, anyone?), and her jock boyfriend is miserable because of simply thinking about it.

Facts like 25% of 15 year old boys and 20% of 15 year old girls are having sex, 29% of girls ages 15 – 19 have partners that are 3 – 5 years older, and that 46.8% of high school students are having sex, are not so cleverly thrown in there; as well as the proper steps to take if your pregnant, being echoed by Amy’s two best friends in the bathroom scene where she takes multiple pregnancy test, just to be sure.

While I do applaud the show’s attempt to be both informative and entertaining, the general audience of 15-year-old girls will see right through it.

Living Out Loud

A mid-life crisis, a love story, some drugs, some death, a little jazz, and some of those occasional voices you hear in your head.  Pleasantly confused?  Me too.  

Living Out Loud is a story about Judith (Holly Hunter), a woman just separated from her husband of 15 years, and Pat (Danny DeVito), an elevator operator whose wife threw him out because of his gambling addiction and debts owed because of it.  With all of the cliché components of a love story, but with other unexpected elements, and no clear beginning, middle, or end Living Out Loud gives a respectable version of the romantic comedy.

The film begins with Judith (Hunter) breaking up with her husband after she finds out that he has been cheating one her.  Her fabulous fifth avenue doctor’s wife life becomes so clearly phony when she realizes that she had given up her ambitions to support his; and smashed in her face when she sees his mistress very much pregnant, after many conversations of him convincing her that they didn’t need children to live a happy and fulfilling life.

We soon meet Pat (DeVito), a loveable short pudgy elevator operator with debts up to his ears, a gambling problem, and a wife that left him for it.  With repetitive opportunities to be relieved from debt, from a job offer from his brother, he decides to stick to his unfortunate independence.

At the meeting of Judith and Pat, parallels begin to manifest in their completely opposite lives.  Judith, the supporter of a successful man and Pat, the stubbornly independent one; now both without a family or motivation for much of anything.  With a hug of empathy, a small sympathetic loan, and a bottle of wine, the stage is set for the underdog love story.  And while there is all the opportunity to exercise that avenue – and even though a part of you wishes that writer and director, Richard LaGravenese, had indeed exercised it – the realism sticks and the need for one another is what keeps them together.

Giving an equally exceptional performance to Hunter and Devito, Queen Latifah, playing Liz Bailey, a jazz singer that Judith sometimes falls paralyzed to, cannot go unnoticed.  Liz (Latifah) becomes a friend of Judith and Pat and shares in their relationship horrors when she is so bluntly informed by Judith that her boyfriend is a homosexual.

Living Out Loud gives us a seemingly small peek at the lives of these three individuals and how people that are so different in so many ways can share life experiences that are so relatable.  With no clear ending, or beginning for that matter, the characters are not only formed based on their life experiences, but are completely relative to yours.  You decide their beginning and their end, giving you a sense of self-empowerment (which is pretty impressive to do in 100 minutes, kudos LaGravenese), just the same way as Judith, Pat, and Liz do.