User Reviews

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

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

Revisiting familiar territory he explored in his breakthrough independent She's Gotta Have It, Spike Lee takes a bigger budget, professional actors and delivers a far inferior product. It's a case of Spike having it and not knowing what to do with it.

Aspiring actress Judy get's a screen test for a film being done by Quentin Tarantino. QT gets ugly though and this sour's Judy's career outlook. Burning bridges with her agent and acting coach and desperate for work she takes a job as a phone sex operator. She develops a knack for it and soon as "Girl 6" is in demand with customers. Dealing with warped customers and a former lover who shoplifts for a living Judy begins to jade and fade from reality.

Sloppy, disjointed and in a constant state of funk Girl 6 is filled with lackluster performances and insipid "goofs" by Lee such as a smoldering cameo by Madonna reminding us just how bad an actress and self parody she is along with an obnoxious turn by Tarantino as himself. Not to be outdone Lee piles the detritus on by jamming a parody of the Jeffersons (with himself as George) into the torpid proceedings as well as a ham fisted, film school 101 Foxy Brown take.

Therese Randle as Girl 6 is beautiful, flat and dull. Given every male in the pic is an insensitive lout, ( though Lee doing his "... have It" Mars with some of the same dialog lifted from the film redeems himself to a degree) one might understand why she stumbles through the picture shell shocked most of the time. Isiah Washington as an ex also gives a fatigued and unprepared turn as the principled booster.

Girl 6 is a slow moving bore with Lee failing to amp up the drama with any degree of passion or deliver any character of substance with depth. At a loss to develop Judy he compensates with misogynistic stereotypes to dramatize her plight ala SGHI re-worked, colorized, sensationalized, and amazingly puerile for a feature film. It's all silly surliness.

I can't help but to be amused by the other comments/reviews on this movie. They (even the positive ones) completely enforce exactly what this movie is actively trying to point out about our society.

Several people noted that the narrative was weak or nonexistent, that the film didn't "go" anywhere, and/or that there was too much extra "stuff" that distracted the story from the "real" plot line. I'm here to tell you that this is the whole point of Spike Lee's brilliant Girl 6. It's not a flaw in the movie, it is part of it's very construction.

Every time an extradiegetic scene was placed within the overall plot (such as the Dorothy Dandridge, Foxy Brown, Jeffersons scenes as well as the recurring image of the elevator shaft) the audience is pulled away from the narrative of the film and forced to see it as such: a movie! And fictional movies have no basis in reality; the people and actions depicted are not real. This disrupts our normal expectations about what we expect to see in a film.

The movie is also scattered with touches of reflexivity. For example, Naomi Campbell, wearing a shirt that says "Models Suck" and Quentin Tarantino, acting very ironically in a way he has been accused of. At the end, the movie theater in L.A. is showing a movie entitled "Girl 6" and a billboard proclaims that it's "The End." Absolutely all of this is purposeful and calculated. It does exactly what so many people were disappointed not to see, by subverting our expectations and implicitely pointing out that this is NOT a movie you can just "fall into" and become a passive spectator, that it actively engages the audience and breaks down our concepts of the master narrative by giving us an ending we did not expect.

Girl 6 is not a movie about phone sex, as so many of you seem to believe. It is a feminist (if you know anything about Suzan-Lori Parks, you know she would never condone something sexist, let alone write it) film that deliberately references itself in order to subvert our expectations about films, society, and women.

It's really a shame that so many people are, in fact, so hooked on "traditional" forms of narrative (taught by a sexist society) that they fail to see the value of this film.

Failed African-American actress in New York City turns to phone sex for a career change. This Spike Lee joint, which he produced and directed from a maladroit script by Suzan-Lori Parks, opens with an excruciating scene which typifies the rest: Theresa Randle, auditioning for a movie role for a questionable filmmaker (Quentin Tarantino in a cameo), is asked to remove her blouse; she hesitates, but eventually strips under pressure. Once we get a good look at her breasts, Randle then has a change of heart, dresses and walks off. She's a struggling modern-day actress being exploited by the oldest con game in the annals of sleazy show business, but Lee seems to think he's showing us something new (didn't he see "Fame"?). If the sequence is supposed to be funny, the punchline is sadly missing--but, as long as we get to see the actress exposed, I guess Lee figures he's making his point. NO STARS from ****

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.

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.

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.

Once again, I've watched a Spike Lee movie and wasn't very impressed. But, the real truth is that I just didn't understand it. Maybe he is too conceptual for me?

Okay, you get the message. Women can't get acting gigs unless they flash their tits. So what does principal actress do after refusing to take off her top-she gets a job acting about having virtual sex! So she's able to pay the bills, but is still selling herself.

The ex-husband is a pain-in-the-ass philosopher type who only steals "what he needs." Again Lee has to push the idea that every man wants a white woman. This is evidenced about halfway through film when boss tells all the phone sex women to be white unless asked to be otherwise. Yawn.

The visuals are pleasant and Prince's songs really sound great. In fact, I only rented this film after I bought the soundtrack. Acting was good, the cameos are well-chosen and well-placed. But, I thought the movie could have done/said more.

Don't go out of your way to see it, but if its it on, its worth a watch.

Considered to be Spike's worst, I still found this engaging (ha ha) as his others. Randle holds her own as a New York actress, dropped from her agency after walking out on a QT audition. Idiot. Footnote: If you see how bad Randle's character's acting is, you question how she's come so far. Now out of the work, scoring the odd extra audition, Randle finds a new way to tap into her talents, as a phone sex operator. This is where the movie gets juicy, thanks to Randle's colorful callers, one Hispanic couple cracked me up. Unfortunately, one of her callers is a unhinged stalker, where the movie later shifts into drama, where originally, really, it was an intended drama. The stalker who played De Caprio's dying friend in The Basketball Diaries, a year earlier, sent some chills through me when getting to the crux his threats, on poor suffering Randle, where this change of mood to the film was good. Randle's ex, a good hearted thief (Issah Washington) isn't really, helping as wanting to get back with her. Her good friend/neighbor, Jimmy, of course played by Lee, who sort of bludges off of her, tries to talk her out of this dangerous and nowhere job. Lee's quite good in this, a proved actor, given the right environment. Too, Randle's being harassed by a middle aged Indian store owner, who rejects his advances. Underneath, this is a movie about woman's rights, not wanting to conform, like when being asked to strip for a movie audition, where she blows other ones later on these same grounds. It too shows how dangerous it can be, when you get too friendly with the wrong client, who sounds so nice and genuine over the phone. Women shouldn't have to tolerate drooling men, or sick minds. Randle's character's independence, I really liked, and she does have a real sexy voice. If you're a Lee fan, don't shun this one out, or if you're an avid Lee fan, it goes without saying. Opening score is great, as is a guest appearance by Madonna, fondling a cute dog, plus all those dropping phones in the street, in it's finale, with Randle and partner making up.

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.

After a confrontation with a director who forces her to take her top off in an audition, the title character of the film storms out and is subsequently dropped by both her agent and her acting teacher. Unable to get `proper' acting work, she moves into the world of phone sex. Getting a job with an office-call firm, Girl 6 is one of many girls, acting out whatever fantasy her callers want. However, the more confident she gets the more she starts to lose touch with herself.

When I write a review of a film I have just seen, it helps me to write a little summary of the plot to help me think about what I have just seen. I sat this because I don't want you to think that my opening paragraph suggests that plot is a key part of this film - it isn't. What exists in the place of a solid narrative is a series of stylish scenes, spinning characters and good performances. I can totally understand why so many people just hated this film - god knows it does itself no favours - however fans of Spike Lee should find much to keep them watching as it is very much the director's film. Lee, however, cannot find anything to really build on in the screenplay and the plot is never very satisfying; the film's energy just about covers this until the end where Lee realises that he hasn't really gone anywhere to generate a traditional conclusion - this means that the serious stuff doesn't ring true.

However Lee is the driving force behind the film and it is his stylish direction that keeps all the fragmented scenes/sketches/skits together. He uses different film stock to good effect and the stuff he does with the camera is typical of what we have seen in his other films - except here he does it a lot more. Of course, this is style with little narrative substance and that is not a good thing but, if you are going to do style without substance, then you'd better do it as well as Lee can do it. The film leaps all over different styles including the Jeffersons, Foxy Brown and many others; in a way I suppose this is meant to be 6 losing touch with herself on the way to finding inner confidence and peace but it doesn't really work (and the `falling down a dark lift shaft' subplot/snippets are too heavy handed on top of this).

Lee's direction is the first reason for watching this film, but equally worthwhile is Randle (and not for the reason rather juvenilely suggested by many reviews here). Randle is a great actress and she shows it here - it is rather sad that she has actually done quite few films and too many of them have her in small supporting roles (Bad Boys I & II, Spawn, Space Jam, Malcolm X and so on). Here she has very little character to work with (not even a name!) but she made me forget that simply by the range of her performance. She is asked to do a lot and, despite lacking audience involvement in 6, her performance shows the range that she has - she should really be given better roles on the basis of this film, it's just a shame there aren't really that mean good roles for actresses approaching their 40's (never mind black actresses approaching their 40's!). The support cast features plenty of well-known faces - none of them actually have characters, but mostly they do OK whatever their contribution is. Washington is a good-looking guy and does OK with a character that I never understood. Lee himself does his usual role - he is amusing but contributes to the lack of narrative. The callers include people like Lee-regular Byrd, Peter Berg, Imperioli and Richard Belzer - they do what is asked of them and it isn't their fault the film doesn't work. Batson's acting coach is OTT, Campbell does nothing but look sexy, Madonna is actually OK but other like Berry and Silver merely show their face. Tarantino is suitably brash prior to his public falling out with Lee and Turturro just seems to be there for the sake of finding a part for him. Despite the many stars, it is Randle that carries the film - her character is poor but her performance is great.

Indeed this sums up the whole film. To watch it is rather infuriating as it lacks characters, meaningful narrative and plotting. If you are a fan of Spike Lee then you will enjoy the style of the film and the fact that his behind-the-camera skills are there for all to see. Aside from this the only other reason to really watch it is a great performance by Randle that will almost act like an audition tape for her - no character but plenty of range and ability! The vast majority of people will dislike this film and I understand why. There is nothing to it but Lee and Randle make it worth a watch once.

I noticed that one of the user reviews for this film had a problem believing it was realistic enough. That this was a Suzan-Lori Parks script really says it all. She's a pulitzer prize winning playwright, the first African-American woman to win, whose plays are very often based on historical archival material. Something I've noticed from works of all kinds, books, films, plays, etc..., that include archival material and historical events and characters is that often the most bizarre and surreal things in the work come from the true story. A specific reference regarding Suzan-Lori Parks is her play Venus.

A quite boring film if I have to tell you the truth. Theresa Randle was the only reason why this film actually got a six from me...after all she was "Girl 6" : )

I am a huge Spike Lee fan and like any huge fan I enjoy everything he makes. Watching Spike Lee movies all these years I know what to expect going into a Spike Lee movie. Incredible dialog, incredible acting, messages or even incredible film scores (courtesy of Terence Blanchard). Spike Lee's 1996 effort Girl 6 however is a tough cookie. Upon seeing it for the first time, I was confused. There were a lot of elements in this film that I hadn't seen in any of Spike's films before. The cameos and the attempt to make this a straight forward comedy was some of the things I had never seen Spike do. But I had confidence in him and knew that he'd make this film watchable. Over the years I had been on the fence about this film and couldn't really figured out what I liked about this film. Was it the fact that it was a Spike Lee joint? Was it the incredible Prince soundtrack? So I decided to sit down and analyze the DVD of the film. We meet an actress (Theresa Randle) in the middle of an audition being conducted by Quentin Tarantino. We witness her walking out on the part because of demands and we also see her being dropped by her agent and kicked out of her acting class. Down on her luck, she looks in the classifieds and find phone sex companies looking for new ladies. She takes the job and we see Girl 6 blossom before our eyes. She has her highs and lows in the business but remains an aspiring actress at heart. Complete with fantasy scenes, Prince music, cameos and Spikes trademark shots Girl 6 was an OK comedy at best. Scenes made me cringe (see the Jeffersons/Good Times fantasy sequence), some made me laugh and the ending left me disappointed. I had now come to see what everyone disliked about the movie. But it wasn't as bad as everyone made it seem. Sure its a Spike Lee joint but don't expect it to be on the level of Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X or Bamboozled. Spike lapsed on this one but it still has its moments. 8 years after Girl 6, Spike would suffer the same fate in 2004's She Hate Me. Maybe comedy isn't his thing but Girl 6 (also see his child friendly 1994 film Crooklyn) separated him from the angry and controversial persona that the press made him out to be. Girl 6 is a mixed bag but it is watchable. I honestly can't say that I wouldn't sit down and watch the whole thing again.

Girl 6 - **1/2 out of ****

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.

Girl Six is a fascinating portrait of a woman on the verge. Absolutely refusing to be predictable, this film is more than anything about the degradation of desire.

The main character, Girl 6, is a prudish, penniless actress in NYC. Dumped by her agent and acting teacher, she turns to a lucrative position as a phone sex operator not only to pay her bills but also to confront her own fear. She has to prove to herself that she has what it takes to be an actress. What follows is a bizarre circuitous journey that seems to go one way but then darts in the opposite direction. We follow Girl 6 from the bubbly slimy fantasy of her phone conversations to the stark neon landscape that is her real life, eventually the boundary between them blurs and our character has to make a stand to sort it out.

Although the film ends on a light and disappointingly frothy note, the complexities of sexuality, sex-work, and being a black woman are dealt with in a startling and oftentimes revelatory fashion. Anyone convinced of Lee's thickwitted sexism, would be wise to view this film, it will definitely change her mind. Absolutely one of Lee's greatest films, extraordinarily daring and although a bit uneven, an outstanding work well ahead of its time.

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.

This movie goes nowhere, but is endlessly fascinating getting there. Theresa Randle plays an actress trying to get a part who is _not_ willing to do anything. But when the opportunity comes to make money by fulfilling sexual fantasies on the phone, she takes to it with relish. She then slowly breaks down, no longer able to stand her own pain and loneliness and longing. This is partly comedy, partly drama, and thoroughly well-acting, with mesmerizing directorial touches.

This movie is by far one of my favourite Spike Lee movies, along with "She's Gotta Have It" It follows the trials and tribulations of an actress trying to make it in New York City. She decides to take a job as a phone sex operator until she gets an acting job. Theresa Randle gives an excellent performance throughout. The musical score by Prince, which includes some of his classic '80s tunes, makes this a movie that you can watch over and over again. Too bad it's not available on DVD, like some of Spike's other movies.