(5 stars out of five)Wow. I went into this film simply to answer a question that's been nagging me for some time: why does everyone like Dave Chappelle? I rarely watch TV, and so I've never seen his show, and I figured, at the very least, that this movie would give me some sense of who this guy was. What I ended up seeing was one of the best depictions of black culture that I've seen in at least a decade. This movie says more about race in 10 minutes than Crash could ever hope to say in its entire running time. But it's not a "race" film as we've come to expect from such a movie... no, it's much more than that. This film celebrates how far we've come all these years, while still making a point of showing how far we need to go. And did I mention that it's fucking hilarious, too? Chappelle's humor is witty, true, and overwhelmingly inviting. Love and happiness flows through the entirety of this picture. What starts out as a great little concert film quickly becomes a funny, touching, and often moving study of the great qualities that can bring many different people together. Even more impressive is the fact that here we have a wonderful, sincere film about the culture of Young Black America in the new millennium, and it's directed by a middle-aged French guy! (Michel Gondry, director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Further proof that sometimes the best films come from the most unexpected places.
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