This week at the movies: Spike Lee’s modern rendition of Lysistrata, an A-list makeover of a Shakespearean classic and a creepy Christmas movie.
Chi-Raq
Spike Lee is back with a topsy-turvy rendition of the classic Greek play "Lysistrata," by Aristophanes. Here, Chicago is Greece and the Grecians are a mostly African American cast of some of the best working actors today (Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Hudson, Samuel L. Jackson, Dave Chappelle, Nick Cannon). The story begins when a stray bullet kills a child and the women of the city go on a sex strike to get the men to give up their guns. It’s quite a timely topic.
Perfect For: Fans of the great director Spike Lee, who want deep thinking about race, politics and social justice in their movies.
What the Critics Say: A return to form. Uneven, but exciting and risky. LA Weekly: “Chi-Raq is a marvel. It's Lee resurrecting his voice - angry, impassioned and funny as hell - right when we need to hear it.” Says the Chicago Sun-Times: “It's a shattering, thunderous wake-up alarm, a call to lay down arms, a gutsy social satire and a highly stylized work of fiction that sometimes feels as accurate and sobering as the crime reporting you see on the front page of this newspaper.”
Our Take: A movie that makes us laugh, think, and cry seems like a bargain for the price of admission. Most can only do one.
Macbeth
The classic Shakespearean tale set in war-torn Scotland gets an A-list makeover with stripped down dialogue (a controversial twist), featuring perhaps the best actor of the current generation, Michael Fassbender, as the titular character, and French actress and Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth. A Weinstein Company production directed by Australian Justin Kurzel, this film is making a total play for the Academy.
Perfect For: Fans of Michael Fassbender (and really, who isn’t?), fans of Shakespeare (most of the world), and a good historical drama.
What the Critics Say: Mixed about the movie itself; thumbs up on the acting. Writes Variety: “Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender excel in Justin Kurzel's thrillingly savage interpretation of the Scottish Play.” But, writes the New Yorker: “The problem is not that Kurzel cuts the words, which is his absolute right, but that he destroys the conditions from which they might conceivably have sprung.”
Our Take: We heart Fassbender and Cotillard, so yes.
Krampus
This Christmas horror-comedy tells the legend of Krampus, a demonic force of ancient evil intent on punishing those without the Christmas spirit. When this dysfunctional family clashes over the holidays, strange and frightening things start happening. Indie regulars Adam Scott and Toni Collette star as the parents, and Emjay Anthony plays Max, the young boy who sets the horror in motion.
Perfect For: It’s rated PG-13 so you can actually take some of the family, but I’m not sure it’s really a family film. I am not sure who wants to see a Christmas horror movie. Oh, right, pre-teen boys. Probably.
What the Critics Say: There are no mainstream media reviews about Krampus currently available.
Our Take: Ummmm.
