Entertainment

10:26 AM CDT on Friday, June 16, 2006

By TOM MAURSTAD / The Dallas Morning News

When you add Dave Chappelle's Block Party to his résumé, what you have is a career that doesn't fit any known celebrity profile. He doesn't play by Hollywood's rules of engagement.

So when he has a smash-hit TV series, signs a megamillions contract to produce a new season but feels he's losing creative control and doesn't like what's happening to the show, he just walks away. (Technically, he flew away to a South African retreat.) And when he makes a comeback, it isn't really a comeback, it's just him doing things he wants to do. What he doesn't do is a prime-time interview with Barbara Walters; he goes on Actors Studio to talk with James Lipton in a two-hour interview that's anti-glam and un-showbiz.

And when he makes a movie, it isn't some screwball comedy or a stand-up concert film. That said, the whole premise of Block Party is kind of screwball, Mr. Chappelle does a fair amount of sort-of stand-up, and there is plenty of concert footage. But you've never seen anything like this movie before. There are predecessors – some of the film, in its freewheeling spirit and celebratory vibe, reminds me of The Last Waltz – but nothing exactly like it.

That's bound to frustrate a lot of people who like their celebrities (and their movies) to behave in broadly predictable and easily categorized ways. If you are looking for Mr. Chappelle to come on camera and start spitting out the jokes and punch lines, forget about it. Having done stand-up since he was a teenager and having succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, he plainly feels no need to prove anything. He's after something bigger than money or acclaim, and you can feel it in every frame of this film.

On the surface, Block Party is the very definition of laid-back and easy-breezy. Dave wants to throw a party, have all his favorite musicians play and invite the neighborhood to come out and enjoy. But from the moment this movie opens with Dave stumbling across a college marching-band practice near his small-town home in Ohio and right there deciding to invite them to come and play at his Brooklyn block party, it's clear he's got a lot more on his mind.

You can talk about building bridges and tearing down walls, but better just to watch Dave at work. First off, as any fan of Chappelle's Show knows, Dave has great taste in music, and he wants to put on the ultimate hip-hop concert the way an ordinary fan might want to make the ultimate compilation disc. But in getting the Roots, Kanye West, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, Dead Prez and Jill Scott along with legends such as Big Daddy Kane to perform on a stage set up on a street in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn, he's trying to create a transformative moment.

It ends up being thrilling to witness someone willing to spend his fame (not to mention his fortune, since Mr. Chappelle paid for much of this production out of his own pocket) on something that has nothing to do with advancing his career and everything to do with making the world a better place. Much credit goes to director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). He resists the temptation to take an MTV-video, quick-cut approach and instead does long takes with plenty of sidelong glances to give the viewer a sense of place and context. You feel like you're there at the rooftop party or at the rehearsal or in the crowd the same way that My Dinner With Andre makes you feel like you're sitting at the table taking part in the meal.

The musical performances are great, whether it's Dead Prez's duo ripping into the white establishment or a reunited Fugees, led by Lauryn Hill, swaying through "Killing Me Softly." The behind-the-scenes stuff is even better, from the rehearsals where Dave cracks up the band as he lives out his James Brown fantasy to the little magical mystery tour the camera crew takes through the "Broken Angel" house built by a colorful couple of eccentric artists.

Best of all are the two making-of documentaries that show how the Block Party project went from a daydream to a movie in production. Watch Dave walk along the sidewalks of his bucolic Ohio hometown; listen in as Dave gets all the performers on the line for a conference call that could have been its own pay-per-view event.

It's all such random, carefree fun but just beneath the surface is the care-filled ambition to celebrate and reach out. This is one of those DVDs you'll want to invite a bunch of friends over to watch with you.

E-mail tmaurstad@dallasnews.com

Dave Chappelle's Block Party

Grade: A-
Starring Dave Chappelle, Erykah Badu, Kanye West, Lauryn Hill, Mos Def, Wyclef Jean and many others. Directed by Michel Gondry. R (language, adult situations). 111 mins. plus extras. $29.98