Da 5 Bloods

Five years ago, the New York Times reported on how reconciliation might truly be taking place in Vietnam, as Vietnamese veterans of the "American War" sat and joined their former enemies (U.S. veterans) while eating chili and chicken wings to celebrate the Fourth of July. Almost 90 percent of young Vietnamese (at least as of 2015) have a favorable opinion of the United States, with many studying in the U.S., while many U.S. veterans have moved back to the country they once fought, often trying to help with charitable causes, like to help the victims of Agent Orange effects. "We have closed the door on the past," one of the Vietnamese veterans says.

Da 5 Bloods, the newest film directed by Spike Lee, focuses on four U.S. veterans of the Vietnam War; for them, the door to the past is not yet closed. They, too, find themselves back in Vietnam, now cosmopolitan and entirely different than when they left. Two former Vietcong members buy them some drinks. The four strut across the dance floor (all pretty well) and argue about Trump. (Paul, the veteran played by Delro Lindo, wears a MAGA throughout the film.) They raise their glasses in a toast with the former VC. "The American War is over," they declare. All four are together, and they will soon be joined by a fifth. "Amen," they say as they cheer.

So why are they back in Vietnam? The veterans–Paul (Lindo), Otis (Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis), and Melvin (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.)—fought together in the war under their squad leader, "Stormin' Norman" (played in flashback scenes by Chadwick Boseman). Norman was their Malcolm and their Martin, we are told. With Norman, they learned a lot about politics and history, like how Crispus Attucks was the first American to die in the Revolutionary War. Without Norman, though, they are cast adrift in modern Vietnam. Despite a happy initial reunion, they head back into the jungle and things start to go awry. The impetus for going back to the battle scenes is to retrieve literal treasure they buried there during the war. The five were under instructions to provide gold to the Lahu people on behalf of the U.S. government as payment for helping them fight the Vietcong, but they decided to bury it and retrieve it years later to help their community.

The flashback scenes don't serve the film well, mostly due to that this is Lee's first war film. Also at fault is the composer, Terence Blanchard, whose music is mostly fine throughout the rest of Da 5 Bloods, yet odd and distracting in these battle scenes. So, too, is the fact that Lee keeps Lindo, Peters, Lewis, and Whitlock as they are with minimal makeup effects. There are no Irishman-esque de-aging effects in this Netflix film. It's neat at first, but it becomes a distraction. But fundamentally, the problem is that directing war scenes is not Lee's strength. None of these flashback scenes are interesting. He pays his respects to Apocalypse Now and Platoon, but doesn't seem to have learned anything from them.  

Just when you think Da 5 Bloods is veering into the realm of being too predictable, there are numerous surprises thrown your way. Some may cause you to roll your eyes and say, "Oh, come on." Indeed, the kind of film it ends up becoming is wildly different than the kind of film it started in the beginning, with the final product feeling like a hybrid of Richard Linklater and Quentin Tarantino. This may or may not contribute to the overall clunkiness of the film's pace. The ungainly tempo continues into the epilogue of the film, which is often the most memorable moments of the films Lee directs, like Malcolm X and BlackKklansman. At first it seems that will be the case with Da 5 Bloods, but then it kind of shifts around a bit and it draws some conclusions that seem misplaced.

The film itself doesn't retain its initial excitement. It's a worthwhile ride, with other noteworthy performances by a diverse cast that includes Jonathan Majors, Johnny Trí Nguyen, Mélanie Thierry, Jasper Pääkkönen, Paul Walter Hauser, Veronica Ngo, and Jean Reno. But you definitely owe it to yourself to watch it to witness the acting of Delroy Lindo. Lindo goes all in for his portrayal of this Trump-supporting veteran who sees ghosts and struggles through PTSD that was never treated. It is his reaction to these situations and his inability to heal deep personal wounds that really start to complicate the group's efforts to be successful. Despite what they tell themselves in the beginning, the war is in fact not yet over, at least for Paul, and Lindo makes all the right moves to demonstrate it. The other characters are given arches, but none of them are as intriguing as Paul's. If the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences didn't hate Black artists so much, he would be considered the frontrunner for Best Actor at this point. Let's all hope he bucks history and gets it.

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BlacKkKlansman

Spike Lee is back. With his provocative film BlacKkKlansman, "based on some fo' real shit," this part-thriller, part-drama, part-comedy flick is saturated with the kinds of societal critiques and questions that have made Lee an essential part of American cinema. He returned to this form several years ago with Chi-raq, but BlacKkKlansman is so much more unforgettable. Taking aim at the Lost Cause revisionist history of The Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind, Lee poses tough questions for every viewer to contemplate. And fortunately, there's basically everything you would want in a Spike Lee joint: thrills, innovative camera work, comedy, and especially social commentary (in a way that virtually no other American director can do). But his ability to capture joy in a movie essentially about human tragedy is exceptional; the "Too Late to Turn Back Now" dance scene in the bar is probably the best music moment of the year.

John David Washington (son of Denzel, Lee's frequent collaborator) plays Ron Stallworth, a young, eager rookie cop for the Colorado Springs Police Department. Bored with his tasks at the department, he eagerly asks for some kind of reassignment as a detective. He's only a rookie, and so he's brushed off. Eventually, he is charged with going undercover at a student rally featuring Stokley Carmichael (Corey Hawkins), by then known as Kwame Ture. At the rally, he meets Patrice Dumas (played by Laura Herrier, whose most prominent film performance was in Spider-Man: Homecoming last year). Patrice is the president of the local Black Student Union. Romance ensues, and he's warned to remember his job. This would surely help him; Patrice hates cops.

Browsing through the newspaper at work, Stallworth comes across an add for the local KKK chapter. Practically out of boredom, he calls the number pretending to be a white racist, leaving a voice message filled with a long laundry list of racist expletives against virtually every group the KKK hates. It's the funniest scene in the movie, as his colleagues slowly drop what they're doing and listen in, totally stunned. The most humorous acting in that brief shot is Adam Driver, not usually known for his comedic abilities. Driver plays Flip Zimmerman, who is recruited to play Stallworth as the racist recruit once they are approved to go undercover and infiltrate the chapter to see if they are planning violent activities. While Zimmerman may be white, he also is Jewish, which means that not only does the KKK hate him, too, but if his identity is revealed, he'll also be in a tremendous amount of jeopardy.

The investigation continues to gather information about the chapter's activities and their hints of violence. Stallworth even fools David Duke along the way. (Yes, that David Duke.) Duke is played by Topher Grace in his best performance in years. He says "darn tootin'" so often and with such an earnest grin that you might occasionally forget about everything Duke has said and done. Ever since he became a star on That '70s Show, Grace's film career has been mostly unmemorable. Here, however, he pulls off a very noteworthy performance. Harrier also really nails the role, and this is the first performance I've seen of Washington's; he may have as prosperous a film career as his famous father.

There is hardly any complaint about the acting from the rest of the cast members, though Paul Walter Hause (who is very funny here), is practically giving the same performance as he did last year in I, Tonya as the village idiot. Isiah Whitlock, Jr. also appears briefly, and just as he did in Chi-raq, Lee gets him to do the "shiiiiiit" thing he did all the time in The Wire, but by now one might feel bad for him because it seems all he has are these cameos in Spike Lee movies doing the same thing over and over again. And in more evidence of Bechdel Test failure, this is a film that is predominantly about men (even though in Stallworth's book, at least one female member of the chapter is mentioned). There are essentially only two female characters (and both of them fictional): Patrice and Connie. Ashlie Atkinson plays Connie, the adorably hospitable yet horrifyingly racist and violent KKK housewife, and yet she is so over the top. So, too, is Finnish actor Jasper Paakkonen, playing her husband, the clansman deeply suspicious of Flip. Most of the other cast is fine, however, especially the appearances by Alec Baldwin, Harry Belefonte, and Michael Buscemi (brother of Steve).

This isn't to say that there is nothing wrong with the movie. Like Argo seven years before it, BlacKkKlansman features an exhilarating climax that is easy to spot how untrue it is.

But the elephant in the room regarding this movie is Donald Trump and the alt-right, the modern-day, watered-down term for the KKK and neo-Nazis. Some of the anti-Trump stuff is a little too cute and a little too on the nose. In one scene, Duke quickly tries to explain his goals by saying something along the lines of America needing to find its greatness again (get it?). Duke and his clansmen repeatedly yell "America first!" at their ceremony. (Duke could sue Trump for stealing all his stuff.) Trump, frankly, deserves this. His unbelievably shocking response to the Unite the Right violent rallies in Charlottesville last year and his unwillingness to condemn Duke and renounce his support during the 2016 campaign have permanently tied him to them. (He likely won't see this movie anyway.)

I want to end by writing that I don't want to reveal anything about the final five minutes. I just want to mention that it's about as powerful a conclusion to a film as you'll ever see.

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Southside With You

Things are awkward on their first date, to say the least. Him liking pie and her preference for ice cream doesn't help, and she won't let him pay for her turkey-on-rye sandwich. She is his supervisor, and is more than cognizant of how this might look to her colleagues. The young woman on the date, Michelle, insists early on to her mother that this is not a date. "Thought you said he was just another smooth-talkin' brother," her mother teases.

That smooth-talkin' brother is a young man named Barack Obama (played here by Patrick Sawyers), just over twenty years before he would become the most powerful man on the planet. We first see him smoking a cigarette, the cool white fedora from his early-year photographs just behind him. Barack may drive a car with a partly rusted floor, but he's confident, or probably cocky, as even his modern-day defenders begrudgingly admit. Barack is going to pick up Michelle Robinson (Tika Sumpter) for what will become their first date, probably the most well-known first date of any First Couple.

One could easily make the argument that if this movie weren't about the Obamas, it would be far less interesting (or marketable). Just as Boyhood was special only because it was filmed over twelve years, Southside With You only works when we're reminded that this is the current First Couple we're watching. Part of the flaw of this movie is the second-rate screenplay that seems more like a mediocre theater playwriting dissertation. The conversations are almost predictable, covering topics ranging from God, Black American art, and Stevie Wonder. But I will at least concede that there was a line in the film I found humorous: a woman scolding someone by telling them, "Watch your mouth--your ass in church."

The church is where we see Obama the community organizer, an exceptional line of work that has often been mocked by people with only half a brain. "No is just a word," he tells the hopeless, members of a community struggling to find funding. And the opposite of no, he says, is on, as in carry on. Barack Obama is the closest thing this nation has ever had to having a Preacher in Chief. It's probably the film's best scene, though it tiptoes towards cliches. It's at least the only moment where Sawyers actually sounds like Barack Obama, a little too professorial, as Michelle tells him, but it's a reminder that Obama has been one of the best orators to have occupied the White House. A motivator, a coach, a pragmatist, a patriot.

It's in this scene where Sawyers shines the most. Sawyers has had bit parts in major movies like Zero Dark Thirty, but here in his first starring role, the guy looks like Obama, talks like Obama, even shakes hands like Obama. The movie may have sub par dialogue, but it at least recognizes that Barack, in the story at least, probably knew that he likely was going to speak at this community meeting, and that it might just be pretty impressive to show off to his supervisor (a supervisor he is courting). But it's a success nonetheless. Things from there become more intimate as Michelle agrees to drinks and teasingly asks him if he prefers white or black women. 

From there they go to see the exceptional Do the Right Thing, directed by Spike Lee, the movie that was shunned by the Oscars in 1990. (They instead rewarded what they thought was a superior film about race relations called Driving Miss Daisy.) Watching Southside With You, I hadn't really thought of just how pertinent the climactic scene of Lee's most famous film--of white police officers choking a black man to death--is to today's harrowing times. Afterwards the two are a bit shaken. Part of this is because they've bumped into their (white) boss. The boss doesn't seem to care that they're on a date, but he also doesn't seem to think that it might be awkward telling two black people that he couldn't understand why the characters in Do the Right Thing were reacting the way they were during the riot.

Aside from that, there are hardly any politics in this film, and that's probably how it should be. This film may be firmly planted in the romance genre, but how can one not think of politics when its two main characters are the current President and First Lady? Because this is a romance film that follows the romance film rules, the movie might be more appreciated in a few decades. But for now, despite both Barack and Michelle Obama's relative popularity, close to half of the American public would probably roll their eyes at this at best and shun and shout about it at worst. The latter half would react that way due to reasons that have nothing to do with the film itself.

Full disclosure: I'm in the former group. My affection for the Obamas--him for his undeniable success (4% unemployment rate, millions more insured, carbon emission reductions of 12%, the death of Bin Laden, to name just a few) and her for hers (her advocacy for children's nutrition and healthy habits and raising awareness of girls' education around the world, in particular), and both of their charm, grace, and kindness makes me like (or at least tolerate) this movie.

But yeah, I get it. Lots of people hate the Obamas. A certain West Virginia government official recently claimed that Michelle is an "ape in heels." A series of questions kept popping into my head as I watched Southside With You: How would the right, many of whom use racist terms for the Obamas, react if Barack Obama had five children with three different wives and admitted to sexually assaulting women? How would the media react if Obama said out loud that John McCain was a war hero only because he was captured, and that he liked people "who weren't captured?" If Obama lost to McCain or Mitt Romney by over three million votes but became president anyway because of the Electoral College, would the alt-right, the KKK, white nationalists, the Tea Party, Vladimir Putin, talk radio, FOX News, and Republicans go quietly into the night? Obama is not the monster his successor is, so I can't imagine there being a Manhattan With You about Second-Place Donald and any one of his wives (or mistresses), although if there would be one, Steve Bannon would undoubtedly produce it.

Back to the movie. It's okay. Nothing grand, nothing great. Not one of the year's best. It's pleasant, undoubtedly, and if you're not angered by who its characters are, you'll likely be okay with it. It's my understanding that the actual Obamas have not yet seen Southside With You, but if they are in for a movie, it might make for a nice date night.

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Chi-raq

Spike Lee, whose Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X are among the best films of the past quarter century, and are certainly among the best that have ever dealt with racial issues, has returned to societal themes in his most interesting movie in twenty years. Centering on the gun violence epidemic in Chicago, Chi-raq contains a message we desperately need. If it isn't self-evident, the title is a juxtaposition of Chicago with Iraq; essentially, Lee is arguing what many have for years: that perhaps the U.S. should focus on its own violence problems before making new ones overseas. The film is not perfect, but its frankness is admirable.

At first, like probably most viewers, I was perplexed by the particular vernacular of the characters. As the plot unfolded, however, it suddenly dawned on me: Lee has adapted Lysistrata, the ancient Greek comedy about Athenian women withholding sex from their partners in an attempt to bring peace, for his anti-gun violence story, and what a genius move it was on his part. In case there is any doubt of the connection to the ancient Greek play, Lee naming the protagonist after the character should put any question to rest. (I was in a production of Lystrata in university, so this only further fanned my appreciation.) More evidence of the use of archaic plot devises is having an actor provide the voice of a chorus, or an on-screen narrator. In this role, Lee has cast his frequent collaborator Samuel L. Jackson in a role named Dolomedes. I could not find anything to verify that this was a character in ancient Greece. However, I found that this name comes from the Greek "dolomed," or wily. Jackson must have known this, for his performance is among the most sharp-witted of all the characters here.

In other roles, Lee has put together perhaps the best cast of 2015, with Nick Cannon, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson, Wesley Snipes, and John Cusack among the film's members. But the best of them is Teyonah Parris in the lead role as Lystrata, who early in the film decides that enough is enough. Her boyfriend, a rapper played by Cannon who also takes Chi-raq as his nickname, has nearly been assassinated by a rival gang. Around the same time, she witnesses a mother (Hudson) mourn the death of her young child who was killed in the streets during a gunfight, and eventually leads a group of women (in both rival gangs) to join together and abstain from intercourse to force their male lovers to the peace table. Some of the actors aren't as interesting to watch as the others. It seems pretty clear that Cusack is meant to be Father Michael Pfleger, the Chicago Catholic priest and activist. Pfleger's sermons are enormously over the top (or "passionate," his supporters might say), so it's understandable why Cusack and Lee would take this route, but it seems distracting and out of place.    
It's obvious why Lee has chosen this topic for these times. We are an outlier nation with a serious gun problem. In recent times, there have been more than 30,000 gun deaths each year. Since 1968, more Americans have died from gun violence than from all the American wars combined, and black Americans are twice as likely to die from gun violence than white Americans. Year after year, our representatives in Washington do nothing. They either have a fetish for this kind of thing, or they are completely beholden to their masters at the NRA (or both). Either way, our country is seriously, pathetically messed up, with guns being its primary disease. But while this is a necessary film for these troubling times, it will not do much to change anything. If young children being massacred within the span of a few minutes at their elementary school in addition to the tens of thousands of Americans who have died each year from gun violence has not sparked a reaction among this country to really tackle this crisis, then a Spike Lee Joint won't either. Maybe preventing our male-dominated government from having sex will.

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