Chi-Raq

This ain't Chicago, it's Chi-Raq, a city where more people have been killed in gang warfare over the years than US troops in Iraq. A slang term for the city's war-infested Southside, Chi-Raq is also a sing-songy, rhyming satire that suggests a classical solution for ending war - by following in the footsteps of Lysistrata, the heroine of Aristophanes's 5th-century comedy, who believed withholding sex from men would create a path to peace. In this modern-day riff, Lysistrata (Teyonah Parris) is a gangster's girlfriend, who demands that all women refuse to have carnal relations with their men until the violence they perpetrate is stopped. Encouraged by a bereaved, intellectual neighbour (Angela Bassett), Lysistrata's passionate argument soon affects men and women at every level of the city. Studded with smart couplets, dance numbers and scenes of grief verging on the Shakespearean, this vibrant, controversial film from director Spike Lee is deft and timely in its message. Jennifer Hudson and John Cusack also make an impression alongside such Lee regulars as Wesley Snipes and a snazzy Samuel L Jackson, who steals the show as narrator Dolmedes, the one-man Greek chorus.