Erykah Badu Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I'm not exactly what you would call a sentimental kind of person, and I tend to get a little 'gaggy' when it comes to the so-called touchy-feely things in life. But if there is one thing that makes me feel like a big old softy, it would be Dave Chappelle's Block Party. Now this is what I call a call a 'feel good movie' with everyone from the lady behind the counter at a liquor store to a *high-school marching band packed with Chappelle's fans and admirers, he puts them at ease while bringing them out their comfort zone, and most importantly: he leaves him laughing.

The 2005 documentary was written and hosted by Chappelle with Michel Gondry behind the camera, and even if you aren't the biggest fan of soul and hip-hop music, you can't deny that you can practically feel the joy that seeps through every frame. The musical line-up included artists like Mos Def, The Roots, Common, Jill Scott, and Erykah Badu. Chappelle even pulled off the impossible by getting The Fugees to perform onstage together for the first time in seven years.

*Correction: the marching band Chappelle brings along is the celebrated College band, The Central State University Marching Band.

After being a disco roller rink creator in Broadway's Xanadu, Playbill.com reports that Cheyenne Jackson (United 93) is joining a new indie film called Shifting the Canvas. Cabin Fever writer/director Chuck Griffith is bringing the feature together, which "tells the story about a group of artists living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn who struggle to maintain a rather dysfunctional family of friends in a post-9/11 world challenged by gentrification, deception, and sterilization." More specifically, it's a city story of bohemians in Brooklyn, art, relationships, and all that metropolitan flavor.

Jackson will play Jens, a young, gay, Wall Street type who comes to New York from the South, and struggles to adapt to his newfound sexuality. But he's not the only guy attached to this feature. There's Kids in the Hall alum Scott Thompson, John Paul Pitoc, who dated Claire in Six Feet Under, Gedde Watanabe -- better known as Long Duk Dong from Sixteen Candles, Matthew Montgomery, Erykah Badu, and more.

Production on the feature won't begin until June 1. However, one Mr. Duk Dong does have another movie coming out this week that you can check out. He's playing the Hotel Manager in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

The SXSW film festival lineup gets more celebrity-rich every day. Matt Dentler just announced more performers who will speak at the conference and/or screenings, including Ray Romano, Charles Nelson Reilly, and Erykah Badu. I'm still trying to decide which films to see ... there are some tough choices. Karina and I will be covering the film festival for Cinematical but even with two of us, we won't be able to catch everything.

• Night Watch opens in Austin this week as part of the Austin Film Society/Dobie Theatre series, AFS@Dobie. Ballets Russes (pictured above) is also held over for another week.
• Kevin Smith will be in Austin early next week and will introduce a midnight screening of House Party on Monday 3/6 at Alamo Downtown. Admission is free, but if you want to guarantee a seat you can buy a food/beverage coupon from Alamo ahead of time. I am not sure what the actual connection is between the Clerks director and the 1990 Kid 'N Play movie, but I'm sure Smith will explain.

"If (fun on the set) meant anything, then Cannonball Run would be a great movie, because I'm sure it was fun to make." – Steven Soderbergh, Indiewire

Dave Chappelle's Block Party should be a nightmare – a self-indulgent vanity project without real rhyme or reason, a concert film with no organizing principle behind it other than that might be fun. ... But Dave Chappelle's Block Party is a lot of fun, and it never feels like you're peeking through the keyhole of a locked door at all the excitment the cool kids are having without you. What's even better is the fact that Chappelle's event and the subsequent film don't just offer the sights and sounds of a multi-millionaire comedian and his musician pals relaxing and having a good time; there's some serious stuff going on in this film behind the backbeats and smiles.

But there are backbeats and smiles, and plenty of them. Dave Chappelle organized a free concert for September 18th, 2004, to be held in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Not only were the bands performing kept secret, so was the actual location of the event; New Yorkers were invited, and at the same time the film opens with Chappelle roving the small town in Ohio nearest to where he makes his home and dispensing 'Golden Tickets" – good for a ride on a chartered bus, a hotel room and admission to the show – to the people in his community.

And Chappelle – mocking, mischievous and sharply aware of everything he's getting away with – is having a blast.