Spike Lee's upcoming, Chicago-set film has been a source of controversy ever since it began filming last spring—first for using the title Chi-Raq, which mayor Rahm Emanuel and others objected to on principle, and later when it was revealed the movie was going to be a musical comedy based on Aristophanes' Lysistrata.
Now the first full trailer is out, and we've got a somewhat fuller glimpse into what indeed appears to be a film about a character named Lysistrata (Teyonah Parris of Mad Men and Dear White People) following the example of her Greek namesake, initiating a sex strike among South Side women as a countermeasure against gun violence. There's direct-to-camera narration by Samuel L. Jackson, a shirtless and rapping Nick Cannon, John Cusack playing a version of Father Michael Pfleger, a product-placement shot of the Sun-Times, Dave Chappelle complaining about a stripper shortage, and all of it is maybe written in rhyming couplets? All that and Jennifer Hudson, Angela Bassett and Wesley Snipes.
The Spike Lee joint is due in theaters December 4.
CHI-RAQ Trailer from 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks on Vimeo.