Girl 6 (1996)

Director:

Spike Lee

Writer:

Suzan-Lori Parks (written by)

Release Date:

22 March 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

She's The Only Thing Better Than Being There

Plot:

This Spike Lee film examines the life of an aspiring actress in New York. She is upset by the treatment...

Plot Keywords:

Neighbor | Phone Sex | Actress | Cameo Appearance | Directed By Co Star

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Theresa Randle	...	Girl 6
Isaiah Washington	...	Shoplifter
Spike Lee	...	Jimmy
Jenifer Lewis	...	Boss #1 - Lil
Debi Mazar	...	Girl #39
Peter Berg	...	Caller #1 - Bob
Michael Imperioli	...	Scary Caller #30
Dina Pearlman	...	Girl #19
Maggie Rush	...	Girl #42
Desi Moreno	...	Girl #4
Kristen Wilson	...	Salesgirl #1
K Funk	...	Salesgirl #2 (as k funk)
Debra Wilson	...	Salesgirl #3
Naomi Campbell	...	Girl #75
Gretchen Mol	...	Girl #12

MPAA:

Rated R for explicit sexual dialogue and some nudity.

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:12 | USA:R (#34105) | South Korea:18 | Australia:R | Finland:K-12 | Germany:18 (bw) (nf) | Netherlands:12 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | Portugal:M/16 (re-rating) | Portugal:M/18

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Trivia:

The monologue that Lovely reads and the camera angles in the scene where Lovely and Jimmy are in his apartment talking about acting are taken from She's Gotta Have It (1986), also directed by Spike Lee.

Quotes:

Judy, aka Girl 6: If you can't get it in real life, you might as well get it on the job, right?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ali G Indahouse (2002)

Soundtrack:

Girl 6

underrated by most critics, but still flawed and spotty/enjoyable sex-talk farce

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.