Block Party Movie Review
Sunday, February 26, 2006
got to see this last September, and the first thing I'll say about it is this:
This documentary-watching experience had me laughing even before the feature began. I'm not sure what it was, whether it was really comforting or really strange, but there was something about seeing senior citizens sitting down (ever-so slowly) to watch the same person I came to watch, to laugh at the same things I find funny.
It was this that made the entire audience feel like one big family for the couple hours we were there together. The audience was so diverse that it could have been compared with the passengers from the movie "Airplane!", but knowing we were all there to laugh at the same thing, all having the same senses of humor, set the mood even before the lights went down. What was even funnier was that about a half an hour into the thing, Dave makes a remark after inviting some seniors to his block party: "Old people f*ckin love me man".
This documentary-watching experience had me laughing even before the feature began. I'm not sure what it was, whether it was really comforting or really strange, but there was something about seeing senior citizens sitting down (ever-so slowly) to watch the same person I came to watch, to laugh at the same things I find funny.
It was this that made the entire audience feel like one big family for the couple hours we were there together. The audience was so diverse that it could have been compared with the passengers from the movie "Airplane!", but knowing we were all there to laugh at the same thing, all having the same senses of humor, set the mood even before the lights went down. What was even funnier was that about a half an hour into the thing, Dave makes a remark after inviting some seniors to his block party: "Old people f*ckin love me man".
After a big contract-renewal with Comedy Central for his hit "Chappelle's Show" in -2004, Chappelle decided to unwind and celebrate by holding a one day concert in downtown Brooklyn. "This is the concert I've always wanted to see," Dave tells us.Although Kanye West, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, the Fugees and more were set to perform, Dave tells no one of the concert's content. He simply invites people to his block party, and they simply don't hesitate to say yes. For a bit of the documentary, Dave goes around, even to Dayton, Ohio (his hometown), asking people if they'd like to attend his block party.
He recruits young, old, white and black citizens from his hometown amongst other places, and even gets a marching band to attend to perform to Kanye West's "Jesus Walks". While the second half is mostly taken up by musical performances, the first half belongs to Chappelle. From jokingly "playing (basketball) these white people for our freedom" to playing hilarious dress-up in front of a store-mirror as he tries to find his block party attire, Dave's crazy comments do nothing but make one laugh. It was most interesting to see the difference between "Television Skit-Chappelle" and the real Dave.
All we knew from "Skit Chappelle" was that he would be willing to dress up as Rick James or even a white man, just to get his comedy across.To see the real Dave Chappelle talking normally and still maintaining equal hilariousness - It's not something to be missed. It was so easy for me to have a great time watching this feature, as most everything that came out of Chappelle's mouth was funny. Even when it started to rain during the concert, the comedian kept everyone from going home by getting on the microphone while he played the bongos: " Five Thousand BLACK peopleeee, chillin in the RAIN, 19 WHITE peopleeee peppered into the CROWD....TRYING to find a MEX-I-CAN! Can't find a MEX-I-CAN!"
From driving down the street and shouting into a megaphone to invite Bill Cosby's Huxtable fictional family to come along, to introducing the concert crowd to his hispanic version of Little Jon, Chappelle smoothly carries the feature on his back while concert performances aren't going on. Even though Michel Gondry (acclaimed for his creative photography) directs, you would never be able to notice by style. In a recent Entertainment Weekly article, Gondry explained: " Dave has something with an audience that is just uncontrollable....he just has to be on screen and everyone goes bonkers....it's always good as a director to feel like oh, the audience needs to stop laughing so loud or they're going to miss the next funny line!"
No matter who you see this with, friends, girlfriends/boyfriends or grandma and grandpa, it'll provide you with a great mood to walk away with.
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posted by Evil @ 5:13 AM,