Girl 6 (1996)

Did you people see the same film I saw?

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

The acting in this movie is really good.

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.

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 ****

SPOILERS THROUGH:I haven't heard of to many movies that center on the phone sex industry before. I went into this movie not knowing to much about it although I did know it was a Spike Lee picture. And after seeing it I must say I thought it above average though I'm not surprised a lot of people may not like this as it is definitely not a mainstream flick.Girl 6 seems to be a very polarizing film in that people seem to either absolutely love it or despise it. I feel neither way, I liked it a lot and could see maybe loving it after I see it again a few times but as it stands now I see it as an interesting, unusual film that takes on a little bit of a taboo subject and features some great performances but that still has some flaws.I'm not going to get into reviewing the plot but will say that Theresa Randle should really be a household name as she was excellent. This would have been a very very difficult role to play (and play well) And she did that. I think the performance was perfect. I will also say I disagree with a lot of critics about the fact that this film almost makes the phone sex industry look to glamorous. I don't agree with that view at all, in fact one of the film's strength's to me, was how strong it was on mood and atmosphere. I do not think this was an industry made to look glamorous, I can't see many people watching this film and thinking:there's an easy, glamorous, exciting fun job. Quite the contrary, this film did with phone sex what "Boogie Nights" did with the porn industry and that is show the inner workings in a detached, dispassion rather monotonous way. I think the film's to be commended for that.Then there's the question of the movie maybe being unrealistic in Girl Six's gradual addiction to the job. In terms of that, it would be difficult for me to comment as I have no idea whether phone sex workers ever do in fact become addicted, but I will say that there isn't much in life that someone, somewhere, probably has not had an addiction to and I think Theresa Randle does a wonderful job in painting a poignantly sad picture of the loneliness that envelops Judy/Girl 6 so whether or not this plot line maybe realistic, strong character development helps with that. And I did enjoy the small appearances from some well known people such as Madonna and Tarrentino.As much as I enjoyed this film there were things that I didn't like although maybe I shouldn't call them flaws, more like frustrations. First, something that others have mentioned is the "why factor". I wanted to see more things explained and less ambiguity. A good example would be when she gives Bob her phone number. There's a lot that's not explained and I wish there had been at least one time we'd gotten to see Girl 6 actually interact with one of these customers in person or at least seen more character development of the men. I felt a lot of time was spent on the fantasy scenes, which I know many liked but that I thought went on to long. I felt to many scenes lasted to long, while others that seemed more interesting were dropped to quickly. I felt the movie was to disjointed at times and was a bit to arty for my tastes at times, with the camera work and some of the imagery.So I'd have to say, for me, this was a daring picture, an above average picture, a well acted(wonderfully acted) picture, but not a fantastic picture. Personally, I think many would hate it, even if it had little to no flaws at all. I mean any film that takes on a controversial subject matter is going to have a lot of detractors. My vote is 7 of 10. I'd definitely recommend it and see it again but there were a lot of moments I wasn't that into as well. Still worth seeing though and really should not have received some of the bad reviews it did from some critics considering all the garbage out there. My vote's 7 of 10.

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.