Girl 6

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.

I'm really not sure what to make of this movie. Teresa Randle (Bad Boys, Bad Boys II) plays a struggling actress that takes a phone sex job and finds that she is good at it. Now, how can someone who got upset taking off her top for Quentin Tarantino want to do phone sex? Well, she did and was doing OK until she decided to get into the kinkier stuff. Then the job began taking over her. One thing that she did manage to do is gain enough confidence that , when she auditioned for that slime Ron Silver (I told you I hate that guy), she didn't even hesitate and just walked out when he asked her to do the same thing.

What makes this movie hard to watch is that there are movies going on within the movie. I'm having a hard time figuring out what Director Spike Lee is trying to accomplish. Maybe that is why it didn't last very long in the theaters as no one else can figure out what he was trying to do either.

The film featured others like Isaiah Washington (Grey's Anatomy), Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos), Richard Belzer (Law & Order SVU) Madonna, and Naomi Campbell (New York Sanitation Department).

Of course, any movie that features Halle Berry, even briefly, is worth a look. I should have quit looking after her appearance.

place your rating here.

Theresa Randle deserved far, far better than this movie as directed by Spike Lee.

Ms. Randle plays an aspiring actress mercilessly beaten down in the beginning by neurotic acting coaches, lecherous s.o.b. directors (except for Spike, of course), abusive production assistants telling her she can't go to the bathroom, etc., all laid on in hystrionic overdrive by Mr. Lee. He could have turned down the volume by three degrees and made his point more believably. She works three jobs to pay for her psychotic acting teacher's tirades, seemingly believing this is normal acting training. She walks out of an audition after being coerced to show her breasts by Quentin Tarantino, which costs her a huge opportunity, but preserves her dignity. (Showing her breasts was completely unnecessary and felt as exploitive as the audition. They could have shown her from behind and Quentin Tarantino's reaction, and her face as she is humiliated by doing it. Or she could have left before removing her top; having her do it after a long, lingering time feels that we get to have our jollies at her expense. (Isn't this the definition of "exploitation"? I *don't* believe this was an intentional point by Spike Lee.) Randle is presented by walking out as a woman of character and integrity. Naturally, her next job stop is to become a phone sex operator. We believe we are about to learn the inside scoop of how the phone sex industry works. Nope. We learn what the horny male perception would like the phone sex industry to be, which is especially bizarre considering this movie was written by a woman.

Girl 6 takes to phone sex like a fish to water, getting more turned on than her clients as the movie proceeds. We learn nothing more of her than that; which makes "Girl 6" the perfect title of this movie. Why do we need to know her name? The movie gives us no insight into her character, her motivation other to pay her rent, or reason to watch it. It's like participating in a phone sex conversation where you can see the person on video on the other end of the line.

I have no idea why Spike Lee made this film. We are introduced to a woman who is more interesting in the first 5 minutes of the film, as a woman struggling to keep her integrity in the face of abuse, than in the remaining two hours. We learn nothing of the phone sex industry, (not that this is a particularly burning issue for our times), and are not enlightened at all by the end. In addition, the character does unlikely things like agree to meet one of her frequent sex callers in person (!!). Then the phone sex addict stands her up. Just like a horny sex addict to do that. Was the "6" in the title referring to the girl's I.Q., or to Spike's, for expecting us to believe this happens, or that phone workers get turned on while talking to anonymous, masturbating schmucks? The depiction of her in the beginning in no way jibes with anything later in the film.

There is a danger in making movies about exploitation in that directors that depict it may seem to cross the line into exploitation themselves, unintentionally. I would like to give Spike Lee the benefit of this doubt, but I can't. As we learn absolutely nothing from two hours of heavy breathing, I feel, (pardon the expression), jerked off by a director who has created a film about jerking off, in a less subtle and more exploitive way than the industry it is supposedly based on. And that Theresa Randle, a first-rate actress, has been exploited by a man who claims to understand the word more than any other director around, but understands women about as deeply as the clients who call Girl 6.

I hope Randle gets to appear in the kind of movies with the directors she deserves.

This is my loudest and most vulgar review, in response to the tone of this movie. Three stars, based on story and direction only.

Spike Lee is a man that loves to provoke. He awakens the viewer as he asks to participate in what he is showing on screen. Most of Spike Lee's films have been unmercifully panned by his detractors, including the printed media in this country, and it's a shame because Mr. Lee is one of today's most original creators. In "Girl 6", based on a screen play by the talented Suzan-Lori Parks, a playwright herself, the director directs his satire to the porn industry. If you haven't seen the film, stop reading here!

Judy, the young and black woman at the center of the story, is seen at the start at a casting session with Q.T. (Quentin Tarantino, at his most obnoxious self). Judy is asked by the director to show her breasts, which she reluctantly does, but she is so repulsed by the experience, that Tarantino, or no Tarantino, she's out of there.

This young woman can't find work to enable her to live. The solution presents itself when she answers an ad for a sex phone line after having turned down a woman who runs a strip joint. It appears that Judy is a natural for the job. Suddenly she becomes one of the most demanded woman in the place. She listens attentively, talks soft and is never too pushy or mean to the men who seek her.

Judy makes a mistake when she gives someone her home phone number and goes to meet one of her "regulars" at Coney Island's boardwalk. That's when the dangerous creep keeps persecuting her with threatening phone calls. Since she basically is an actress and wants a change, she decides to leave New York and go to Hollywood, a sad mistake. The last thing we see her do is go to another casting agent who demands to see her breasts, the same thing that the great Tarantino demanded from her! In fact, Spike Lee shows us how women, especially young ones, are vulnerable to fall pray to these unscrupulous operators just to get into the movie business. One thing is evident: Spike Lee is a director who gets magnificent performances out of the stars of his films. In this case is the wonderful Theresa Randle who as Judy runs away with it because she is perfect as Judy. In fact, this young actress turns a great performance under Mr. Lee's direction. It's a shame we don't see her in roles that will let her show her talents in a positive way.

The large cast does amazing work. Madonna does one of the best things she has ever done in a film with the manager of the strip tease joint. She's perfect! Quentin Tarantino plays himself with all the characteristic excess. John Turturro is seen briefly as Judy's agent. Michael Imperioli and Peter Berg are seen as some of Judy's callers. Gretchen Mol, Debi Mazar, Naomi Campbell, Jenifer Lewis are part of the sex phone women, and Ron Silver shows up at the end. Spike Lee himself is the next door neighbor, but he takes a back seat in order to leave the front to the amazing Theresa Randle.

I have always like Spike Lee's movie due to the intelligence he puts in the plot and in the dialogues. His films are full of things that make we think and they're guarantee we'll have fun. "Girl 6" however doesn't fit this category. It's not bad, actually I liked it, but it's just an ordinary movie. I liked (very beautiful) Theresa Radle performance and Spike Lee himself is also good. There are lots of pretty girls in "Girl 6", what is a good reason to watch it, but there's nothing really impressive here.

My rate 6/10