After the shooting of a young innocent child by a bullet, a group of women compose a group of Lysistrata, do their best and revolute against some of the important issues, such as sex, race, and oppression in the world in general and America in particular.
It's a mess. But it makes an impression. Chi-Raq has the force of topical-art inevitability. If it didn't exist, you feel, someone would have had to invent it.
Lee's film is worth seeing for its bombastic excess and camo-clad dance scenes. But if you're looking for tactful visual responses to the Black Lives Matter movement and the effects of police brutality, this isn't it.
It's messy in places, as Lee's movies tend to be. But there isn't a moment that Chi-Raq isn't alive. This is a deeply serious, biting picture that also has joy in its heart.
You long for "Chi-Raq" to succeed. Sad to report, it's an awkward affair, stringing out its tearful scenes of mourning, and going wildly astray with its lurches into farce.
Lee returns to engaging, enraged form with Chi-Raq, combining social commentary, anger, humour, dramatics and over-the-top style in a sometimes messy mix that uses every trick necessary to put a spotlight on America's poisonous love affair with guns.