Reel life: Spike Lee offers no solutions, just a spotlight with 'Chi-Raq'

'Chi-Raq' attack!

Spike Lee and other filmmakers behind the controversial new movie “Chi-Raq” came to Chicago's Waldorf Astoria Hotel recently to meet Chicago's arts journalists.

Here are assorted sound bites from the news conference featuring Lee, Chicago priest Father Michael Pfleger, co-writer Kevin Willmott, plus stars Nick Cannon, John Cusack, DB Sweeney, Teyonah Parris, Wesley Snipes and Harry Lennix.

Q. (To Lee) You've been very angry and very defensive about “this is what's wrong with Chicago.” I just want to know when it comes to solutions, what your thoughts are.

Lee: People who come to this film for solutions are going to get the same answers when they came to “Do the Right Thing” thinking Spike is going to tell us how to end racism and prejudice. The single goal of this film was to put a spotlight on this problem.

Through dialogue, discussion and maybe legislation, we can arrive at answers. Anyone who comes to this film and thinks that Spike says that if we do A, B, C, D, E and F, then all the ills of Chicago will be fixed, well ...

Cusack (who plays Father Corridan, modeled after Father Pfleger): I don't think corporations will do anything unless people mobilize and hit the streets. If there's enough people who care, enough people willing to take action, then, maybe things will change. But there's no sound bite answer to the question.

You also have to say three letters that nobody wants to talk about because they're a very powerful lobby: NRA. You're not going to solve this issue until you talk about where the guns are coming in. There's too much to talk about. I could go on for a half-hour.

Lee: He really could, too!

Q. (To Pfleger) How do you think audiences will respond to the very broad sexual satire and very serious tragic elements of the film?

Father Pfleger: You can't deal with a sex strike and not have any sex in it (the movie). If we had changed that, then the accusation would have been “this isn't real. This was sanitized.” I thought it was the raw reality of the movie. I thought it dealt with the realism of the situation. I laughed at parts of it (the movie). I cried at parts of it.

Some scenes just took me over ... it left me angry that this reality is still going on in our city, in our country. I don't have a problem with (this movie). I live in the real world. This is America. And I wasn't always a priest.

DB Sweeney (who plays Chicago's Mayor): It was incredibly silly that we had politicians criticizing Spike Lee for coming to this town to make a movie. This guy is a one-man African-American jobs program. He got more jobs for young brothers and sisters on the South Side last summer than any alderman I know about.

Cusack: When I was making “High Fidelity” in Chicago, I had an English director named Stephen Frears. No one said, “Hey, how come we don't have a Chicago filmmaker?” OK, so I can only make a movie with Harold Ramis? When I made “High Fidelity,” Jack Black wasn't from Chicago. I didn't take any (garbage) for that.

Film critics notebook

• A benefit showing of Frank Capra's holiday classic “It's Wonderful Life” will be presented at 1:30 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 5 and 6, at the Tivoli Theatre, 5021 Highland Ave., Downers Grove. Admission costs $5. Proceeds benefit the Sharing Connection Furniture Bank, a nonprofit organization that collects and distributes furniture and necessities for people in need. classiccinemas.com.

• It's “Home Alone” with free admission! Bank Financial presents John Hughes' comic classic at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 5, at the Ogden 6 Theatre, 1227 E. Ogden Ave., Naperville. Cameras invited as Santa Claus has the theater on his GPS this weekend. Go to classiccinemas.com.

• The After Hours Film Society presents Zhang Yimou's political and family drama “Coming Home,” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 7, at the Tivoli Theatre, 5021 Highland Ave., Downers Grove. PG-13. 109 minutes. General admission $10 ($5 members). classiccinemas.com.

• It's the movie (along with Steven Spielberg's “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”) that caused the MPAA's ratings administration to create the PG-13 rating. The Chicago Film Critics Association presents Joe Dante's horror-comedy “Gremlins,” written by two-time “Harry Potter” director Chris Columbus, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 8, at the Elk Grove Theatre, 1050 Arlington Heights Road, Elk Grove Village. Admission costs $5; CFCA member Patrick Bromley will introduce the show and conduct a brief post-program Q&A. Advance tickets available at the box office and online at classiccinemas.com.

• Get ready to laugh when Dann & Raymond's Movie Club presents “She Turned Me Into a Newt! The Great Comedies, Part 2,” 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10, at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, 500 N. Ave., Arlington Heights. Free admission! Clips from such classic films as “Groundhog Day,” “Pee-wee's Big Adventure,” “The Nutty Professor” and 11 more. Go to ahml.info.