Girl 6

Amazing how badly received was this film. Only an average of 5 from the IMDb viewers?? In my opinion it is a remarkable film from many points of view, daring and interesting, one of Lee's best.

There are many layers in this film. Let us start with the story - an Afro-American actress refuses to expose her body for screen tests, finds herself unemployed, and the lucrative job she finds is in the phone sex industry. Is this job less exposing and more honorable? It seems it is, and what comes plays on a fine line between acting and living a virtual life, that takes over the mundane aspects of the say-to-day life (a kleptomaniac ex, a timid neighbor). The dream plan becomes more complex, intertwined with the story of a little girl that went through an accident to be saved redeemed by the good people around. The film asks questions about the border between passion and addiction, between real life and imagination in a series of lively sketches. Lee with his Afro-American New York reminds here Woody Allen at his best when re-creating the Jewish New York.

Unfortunately, the end is conventional and a little bit confusing. However, the film has many qualities, and a strong cast, first of all the amazing Theresa Randle. I wonder how such a wonderful actress disappeared after such a film, does anybody know what happen to her career? Good movie, worth watching, growing up in time. 8 out of 10 on my personal scale.

A good performance by Theresa Randle carries the movie. Theresa is believable and charismatic in the lead role (not to mention good-looking [grin]).

There are a number of nice touches and funny bits. The way Theresa is gradually drawn into the phone-play and begins to half-believe the fantasy is well done. Halle Berry does a good cameo and the practice session where Naomi Campbell firmly puts down a sleazeball caller is hilarious.

Enjoyed the music too. Prince wrote some of the songs and in particular there is a really nice blues vocal in the scene where Girl 6 waits to meet 'Bob Regular'.

Complaint: I wish Spike Lee would stay out of his own movies - he can't act. His flat, emotionless performance spoils the credibility of his supposed friendship with the Theresa Randle character.

Spike Lee directed this look at one woman's attempt to improve her life by working in the phone-sex trade. Theresa Randle stars as the plucky, wanna-be actress who settles for this line of work, which is presented in a clean, corporate style. Lee co-stars as her neighbor, Jimmy, and there is some subplot about than man (Isaiah Washington) who keeps following her along, but as can be this case with Lee films, there's not much beneath the surface.

Vote: 5

Girl 6 could have been helped from a little trimming, this is the first and probably foremost criticism. At 106 minutes, which should be average length for any movie to aspire to have, it's a few minutes too long and although one might lose the visual metaphor of the drop down the elevator, whatever it really means, the whole sub-plot involving the little girl falling down and breaking her head is unnecessary throughout and brings the film to a halt every time the 'newstory' segment pops up. And every so often, though not frequently, a technical touch or a performance might be a little too over the top, too flamboyant even for the Spike Lee Joint standard.

But aside from this, Girl 6 is fun and enjoyable "fluff" for Spike Lee, which means that it's still risqué and poignant and sharp-tongued (more than usual here and in more ways than one, some pun intended), and loaded with hit or miss R&B songs (this time by Prince, not quite as cool as Batman tracks but close). It's about an aspiring actress (Theresa Randle) who hits roadblocks in her career when she gets told to take her top off for a "TOP Hollywood DIRECTOR" called "Q.T.", and played not too embarrassingly by the man himself. After some crappy gigs she goes for something that involves sex but only with the vocal chords, and indeed involves a kind of on-the-spot improvisation: phone-sex operator.

From here the plot kind of takes off, however episodically and sometimes very loose in structure (there's some connection with one phone sex guy, Bob, whom Girl 6 crushes on and gets practically dumped, and a "Scary Caller" who treats her like dirt), and mostly involves us seeing what the person on the other line might look like in grainy video, and her own fantasies of movie-stardom from her favorites. This latter part provided the funniest and most visually creative scenes of the picture for me, particularly when Lee himself becomes Mr. Jefferson from the Jeffersons and when Girl 6 becomes Foxy Brown. While some of the visual flourishes we all like from a Lee Joint are present, and maybe too typical, it's fun to see Lee work through talky material, and all the actors have fun with their roles; especially Randle, who gives it her all in a seemingly breakthrough serio-comic turn and who gets to dress up and go for broke in many moments.

Bottom line, it's not as bad as you've heard or seen it rated on this site, but it's also somewhat of a trifle in the Lee cannon, albeit within its own limitations almost (though not quite) the level of romantic-comedy we might expect from the director of She's Gotta Have It. Hey, it's better than She Hate Me, at the least, and somewhat less incoherent.

Girl 6 is not a laugh-out-loud comedy so much as it is a satire of the nature of the struggle of the typical New York City actress with big dreams. She can hardly get a job and eventually resorts to using her talents to the most basic and competently lucrative degree as a phone sex girl.

The film held my interest to a great degree, but only because of the visceral experience of watching it. John Corso and Malik Hassan Sayeed's cinematography, which ranges several different sorts of film stock, and Lee's consistent talent with the placement of music combined with the film's fascinating look is beautiful. There are several feelings that I felt that took me on a ride, but they were empty feelings, fleeting ominous moods, energy. The story doesn't fit. Thus, the movie is only stylistically moving. If the script had been directed by anyone else, it likely wouldn't be worth it at all.

The substance of the film is basically nonexistent. The satire is not cohesive because there is no real point the film makes. This is certainly one of Spike Lee's worst films, but it certainly has a beauty lathered on top.