Dave Chappelle’s Block Party
Rogue Pictures
Starring: Dave Chappelle, Kanye West, Mos Def and Erykah Badu
The Verdict: Chappelle’s comedy is scarce, but astonishing hip-hop performances aren’t.
2 1/2 of 4 stars
“Dave Chappelle’s Block Party” follows Chappelle during preparations for and performances of a dream hip-hop and R&B concert he organizes to take place on a random city block in Brooklyn. The performers won’t be in it for money or press; it’s all to get personal messages across, both political and emotional.
Dave’s show features some of the biggest names in the business-Erykah Badu, Mos Def and Kanye West, to name a few-and won’t charge an entry fee.
The event isn’t publicized but is open to those lucky enough to have Dave bestow on them a Willy Wonka-style golden entry ticket.
In one of the film’s more memorable episodes, Chappelle overhears marching band practice at Ohio’s Central State University and decides to invite the whole group of youngsters to play at his show.
And what a show. Mos Def and Talib Kweli glow with the joy and energy of born performers as they rev up the crowd with “Umi Says.” John Legend’s mournful wail invades the soul as he backs up Kanye West on “Jesus Walks.” Erykah Badu and Jill Scott shake the earth in a power duet at the end of “You Got Me.” Even nonbelievers may get goosebumps when the reunited Fugees tear ecstatically into “Killing Me Softly.”
Like Chappelle, the show has a fierce, expansive political conscience. Rap group Dead Prez, whose lyrics Chappelle believes are too racially charged to ever be played on mainstream radio, explode in a call for freedom from oppression and call the White House a “crack house.”
Wyclef Jean takes a more whimsical approach, serenading the young marching band members with a song about what would happen if a black man were elected president.
The film, directed by Michel Gondry, is much more of a concert film than advertising campaigns suggest, which is a boon for music lovers and a letdown for Chappelle fans. Gondry’s cameras capture the event from every possible angle, but one wishes he’d let the focus linger longer on the concert’s anarchic master of ceremonies.
Chappelle is interested in people and their varied natures. His skills of mimicry and parody are laser sharp, but one never feels like the comedian would couple those skills with cruelty to get a laugh; he appreciates his targets too much to savage them completely.
Watch him keep a straight face as he footraces a middle-school-aged boy. Or as he endures the droning of an eccentric couple whose Brooklyn house-front will become center stage for the concert. Or as he asks a buttoned-down tailor for advice on selecting an optimum pimp jacket. Or as he jovially beat boxes for a waiter whose dreams of rap superstardom are far-fetched, to say the least.
For all its spectacular if truncated concert footage, “Block Party” doesn’t amount to much of a movie. The audience will never fully grasp the meaning or impact of the event besides its existence as a spectacle built on the shoulders of numerous superstars.
It’s also hard to believe that Gondry, the director of the brilliant “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” provides so little insight into the inner workings of the comedian who would later turn his back on Comedy Central and fly to Africa to regroup without phoning his wife first.
In one notable scene, Dave sits down to fiddle with the keys of a dusty old piano. He’s no trained musician, but he reveals that he’s spent large portions of his free time teaching himself how to play “‘Round Midnight” and “Misty.” As he admits his admiration for Thelonious Monk, Chappelle’s jagged playing takes on a hypnotic rhythm all its own.
Comedy and music share a closeness linked by timing, Chappelle goes on. “I’m mediocre at both, but I’ve managed to talk my way into a fortune.”
What a pity that the video record of Dave’s dream concert is exactly what the comedian humbly says he is but obviously isn’t-mediocre.