message in the movies By Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

               
Dave Chappelle’s Block Party    Rated R
Directed by Michel Gondry. Documentary / Concert Film


 Photo © Copyright Rogue Pictures

In many ways, Dave Chappelle’s Block Party shouldn’t work as a film.  It tells the behind-the-scenes story of how Ohio comedian Chappelle organized a free hip-hop/R&B/comedy concert that took place in the Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn neighborhood in September 2004.  The concert would feature such major talent as Kanye West, Mos Def, and Erykah Badu and include a reunion performance from The Fugees. Chappelle would not only arrange to block off the street, set up a stage and invite everyone in the neighborhood to come (including poor and middle-class families alike), but he would also load up a bus full of folks from the Dayton / Yellow Springs area to attend (including the entire marching band from Central State University!).  As we watch Chappelle and company (including an old-fashioned house band) joke and rehearse and delight in the spontaneity of the concept, we also get to meet a lot of regular folks who are enjoying the chance to hang out with a bunch of famous people who are regular folk, too.  The music is energetic and fun and even inspired at times (as Kanye West and John Legend sing the great song “Jesus Walks”).  Sure, there is a smattering of crude language, but it’s mild by hip-hop standards.  The rap is heavily seasoned with melodic soul and it turns out to be a great party.  I’m sure that this loose event required months (if not years) of development time, but once underway, it is clearly a labor of love that is filled with hope for the human condition.   Dave Chappelle’s Block Party contains very few complete songs (although the entire concert was filmed).  I am looking forward to the DVD release which ought to include the entire concert as a bonus.  This is not a great film by a long shot, but I still smile thinking about it; surely the kingdom of God is in this place.

Pitchfork Rating: Three halos.  (A good-natured and life-affirming paean to music and neighborhood.)  )  Two pitchforks. (Occasional swearing, juvenile sexual humor, drug references.)

 

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