Some critics are applauding Spike Lee’s newest “joint,” Chi-Raq.  Justin Chang of Variety calls it Lee’s “most vital, lived-in work in some time.”  David Edelstein over at Vulture heralds that it is “perhaps the greatest antigun movie ever.”  But it has also provoked scathing criticism. And given the subject matter, it’s hard to imagine that the provocation was unintended. The film itself is a modern telling of Greek playwright Aristophanes’ comedic work, Lysistrata.  In the ancient play, an Athenian woman, who lends her name to the title, organizes all of the women of Greece with a plan to withhold sex from their husbands, in hopes that the men among the opposing factions of the Peloponnesian War (principally, Athens and Sparta) will sign a peace treaty.       Lee credits his wife for the epiphany about setting the story in Chicago.  “Chicago,” he says in...(Read Full Article)