Skip to main content

Women take on gun violence with no-sex oath in the new trailer for Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq


With Amazon Studios’ first original movie, Chi-Raq, due to hit theaters in December, the first trailer was released Tuesday. The film, which features a star-studded cast, is directed by critically acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee.

Chi-Raq is a modern adaptation of the Greek comedy Lysistrata by Aristophanes, and it also satirizes the city of Chicago’s rampant gun violence. In fact, the movie’s title is a nickname often used by Southside residents, blending the name of their city with that of Iraq to comment on the level of danger. After flashing “This is an emergency” multiple times at the beginning of the trailer, a voiceover tells us that “homicides in Chicago, Illinois, have surpassed the death toll of American special forces in Iraq.” The preview gets more lighthearted from there, but the message is clear throughout.

In the film, Lysistrata (played by Teyonah Paris) encourages a group of women to withhold sex to get the men in their lives to put down their guns. The idea catches on too, as shown in the trailer — so much so that even the poles in strip clubs are empty. “I will deny rights of access and entrance,” the women chant together in a show of solidarity.

In addition to Paris, the cast includes the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Hudson, Wesley Snipes, John Cusack, D.B. Sweeney, Angela Bassett, and more. It’s an impressive list, especially on top of the fact that Lee is behind the camera. The award-winning director also co-wrote the film with Kevin Willmott.

Chi-Raq is set to hit theaters for a limited release on Dec. 4, thanks to a partnership between Amazon, Roadside Attractions, and Lionsgate. The movie will later be released on Amazon Instant Video, making it free for Prime members.

Editors' Recommendations

Stephanie Topacio Long
Stephanie Topacio Long is a writer and editor whose writing interests range from business to books. She also contributes to…
Everything coming to Peacock in October 2023
Three cute robots stand on a stage in Five Nights at Freddy's.

Five Nights at Freddy's | Official Trailer 2

Fall has just begun, and the excitement is just starting on Peacock. October's programming schedule is packed with all sorts of great offerings for Peacock's paid subscribers to enjoy all month long (and in some cases, even longer than that).

Read more
How to watch boxing online: Stream every fight
how to watch fury vs wilder 3 live stream online deontay v tyson

Zhilei Zhang and Joe Joyce meet for the second time this weekend. Joyce is hoping to recover from the massive upset loss Zhang gave him in their first meeting, when Zhang pummeled Joyce's eye with straight rights until the doctor recommended stopping the fight. Below we have the details of every major boxing streaming service, but if Zhang vs. Joyce II is all you care about, you can head straight to ESPN+ for a subscription and watch the fight there on Saturday.

If you're new to boxing and want to catch all the bouts from the biggest stars in the sport, we can help you find the best and cheapest ways to watch boxing online. It can get complicated. Fighters are tied to specific promoters who are tied to specific streaming sites. The days of Friday night fights on network TV are long gone.

Read more
The 10 most popular shows on Max right now
The cast of Gangs of London.

For the second week in a row, the Max original animated series, Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake, is on top of the ten most popular shows on Max. And while Harley Quinn and Hard Knocks have fallen out of the top ten, most of this list remains intact from the previous week. As before, the AMC+ shows on loan to Max are outperforming most of the other series on Max. Now that Gangs of New York has earned a place on the list, it has become the fifth AMC+ series to do so. The other four are Killing Eve, Fear the Walking Dead, Interview with the Vampire, and A Discovery of Witches. This makes us wonder what this list will look like at the end of October when all of these shows return to AMC+.

It's also worth noting that this week's No. 2 show, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, is still performing well less than a week after its abrupt cancellation. If Winning Time has this kind of sustained popularity then perhaps it was a mistake for HBO to pass on a renewal. We'll see how the show performs next week with no more new episodes. But for today, September 22, these are the 10 most popular shows on Max right now.

Read more