Thanks to Spike Lee, we are finally able to experience one of the very best musicals of the last few years on screen and what a helluva of experience this is. Tony-winning Passing Strange is not your ordinary rock musical as it uses a wide variety of music styles exploring such genres as soulful blues, energetic punk rock, brutal new wave, gospel and cabaret. The force behind this spectacle is Stew, the musician who wrote and co-arranged the whole performance. He is also the narrator displaying his impressive skills especially in singing. Overall, what an amazing guy he is! His partly autobiographical story is universally relatable depicting a young man's struggle for artistic fulfillment. As the main character travels to Europe, Stew spices it with brilliant cultural satire deeply ingrained in history. He steers clear of being oversentimental and often provides us with auto-irony, which is crucial when you want to make people laugh. He even goes as far as to comment on his role as an artist/creator and nails it perfectly building to an ecstatic finale filled with uncontrolled joy. Besides, Passing Strange features superb performances from every single member of the extremely talented cast. Some of them had a difficult task channeling many characters like Colman Domingo, particularly incredible as controversial musician Mr. Venus. I couldn't resist the charms of De'Adre Aziza and Rebecca Jones who appeared to be extremely versatile actresses as well as fabulous singers. Daniel Breaker in a leading role also delivered top-notch performance encompassing the whole range of emotions. Spike Lee's cutting is fast, dynamic and hyper-kinetic to the point that the filmed performance resembles an actual movie. The camera is always in the right place frequently showing sweat on the faces of ideally synchronized performers. To conclude, Passing Strange ranks among the most unforgettable movies I've ever seen. It's refreshing, exhilarating and very special for me.
