Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2006, Michel Gondry)
What he said, although a bit less enthusiastic. I agree with the assertion that this may be due to the film not being made in my ‘hood. If this had happened in Logan Square in Chicago instead of Brooklym I likely would have gone ballistic over it. I certainly understand that kind of visceral reaction, one of the reasons I so loved I Am Trying To Break Your Heart if because of all the gorgeous black and white photography of Chicago. I cannot rave enough about the musical performances Dave Chappelle brought to bear for this event. In particular Kanye West’s rendition of “Jesus Walks” (complete with a community college marching band Chappelle had brought in from Ohio) was spectacular. I had given College Education a couple spins when it came out and it hadn’t stuck, and this prompted me to give it another look. It still didn’t stick, but I certainly appreciate some of its charms more. Too many damn skits, maybe I’ll try a playlist with all of them cut out.
Also do I lose what little music cred I have if I admit I had no idea who The Fugees were before I saw this?
related articles
- Memories, Complicated (February 14th, 2008)
- SIFF Day 10 (I Don’t Want To Sleep Alone, The Man In The Chair, The Elephant And The Sea) (January 1st, 2008)
- Some Shit I Stole From socialretard (September 10th, 2007)
- SIFF Day 9 (The Cloud, Still Alive: A Film About Krzysztof Kieslowski) (June 25th, 2007)
- SIFF Days 7 and 8 (Slipstream, Eagle Vs Shark) (June 24th, 2007)
March 28th, 2006 at 11:48 am
I wanted to like this movie, but I was yawning most of the time. Maybe I need to find Chappelle more funny. Maybe I need to have visited Brooklyn before. Maybe I didn’t want to see a happy movie.
The parts I found to be interesting were those little unscripted moments when he would be offering someone tickets or during the banter between band practice. The music was great, and the documenting of the planning process was great, it just felt like the kind of thing I’d have more attachment and emotion to if I was actually involved with it. It made me question whether I would have even gone if I had lived there, and the answer probably would have been no because being around that many enthusiastic people probably would have been irritating as hell if I wasn’t totally into the music.
It’s hard to see how this is the same director who did the handful of wacky Bjork videos. There is something very raw about the feel to it which I really liked, and the music was great, but it dragged with Chappelle at the forefront and the directing style which seemed to be in conflict. I would have found this to be really great had 1. The documentary been less forgiving with Chapelle and his dumb jokes and cut to more interactions with audience members and band members and their thoughts on the idea of a block party (something that could have been better extrapolated on by people other than Chappelle and would have given the movie some more depth), 2. The documentary had highlighted more of the smaller unscripted moments between Chappelle and the audience members, as mentioned above, and not Chappelle hamming it up.
I’m not saying Chappelle is completely unfunny, or that the movie was strictly about him, but I think the opportunity was there to display a side of him that wouldn’t otherwise be on display, and in doing so add some depth to the documentary. Either that, or lengthen the musical segments.