Boy meets 'Girl 6' with a lot of heavy breathing

By Anthony Ashley
Arizona Daily Wildcat
April 8, 1996


Arizona Daily Wildcat

Madonna as a strip-club owner in Spike Lee's latest film "Girl 6."

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"Girl 6," the new Spike Lee movie, does not broaden a viewer's horizons on phone sex, thanks in part to endless talk shows such as Oprah, Ricki, Sally and Phil. Instead, the comedy entertains you and shows just how far one will go for what some consider to be a disgusting job.

The movie is lightweight, bouncy and fun. That's what makes this movie so entertaining. Lee, for once, doesn't throw the conspicuous issue-of-the-week in the movie - instead, the fun and humor are in the spotlight, while the issue stands in the background.

"Girl 6" is about an unemployed actress, played by the fabulous Lee alumna Theresa Randle, who takes a job as a phone-sex operator. She takes this job because she is tired of going to auditions where it is required to show your breasts to the director (her pet peeve), and tired of other dead-end jobs, such as handing out leaflets on New York City sidewalks.

Before Randle becomes a phone-sex diva, she endures a painstaking audition with an overly obnoxious director, played by obnoxious director Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino is more interested in seeing Randle's breasts than hearing her monologue borrowed from the 1986 Lee film, "She's Gotta Have It."

Like that movie, "Girl 6" is shown through the eyes of the heroine. But what viewers see are blurry visions and deserted ideas. It is never quite clear what Lee and screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks want 6 to see or do or investigate.

What is left for the viewers is a funny, episodic movie without its main source - which can be good. Besides, what other popular movies include the plot? Give me a Spike Lee comedy any day, than one of his "message movies" where he tries to inform viewers about certain issues, ending up attempting to brainwash and change the opinion of his viewers.

My friend Olive and I enjoyed this movie. We both agreed that Randle was definitely worth watching, and not just because she has a new and fiercer hairdo in each scene. A veteran of "Jungle Fever" and "Malcolm X," Randle knows how to make a splashy line work, and never bores you at all.

6 brings both humor and sensuality to her telephone episodes. She's so good, all she had to do to bring her first customer to the point of no return, was to talk about the size of her silver dollar nipples. She learns all the tricks of the business from her boss Lil (Jenifer Lewis) and co-workers such as Girl 75 (Naomi Campbell) and Black Mistress Tina (Debi Mazar). We learn 6 is a quick learner, especially when she becomes one of the most sought-after operators.

Lee, subtly, does do a little racial spin on this movie. In the movie, all the callers we're introduced to, through 6, are white, well-to-do men. Even Lil tells the girls during a meeting to remember, unless they request, they're white. Does that mean only white men call these lines? Well, I believe Lee does this because if you look at phone sex ads (I'm not one to do so), only white women are shown, meaning that their fantasy is a white woman. As 6's former husband (Isaiah Washington) puts it, maybe black men don't call these lines because they like the real thing.

At one moment in the movie, 6 starts talking to co-worker Mazar about nothing but her customers. Mazar tells 6 not to get caught up in it. She needs a book, a magazine or some sort of hobby, or else she will get burned out.

Well, 6 does not heed to the Mistress' advice and gets so far caught up in the job that she forgets about her acting career neighbor with the bad fashion taste, Jimmie (Spike Lee). She even breaks the rules by giving one of her callers her phone number, so they can meet.

When Jimmie confronts her about the whole situation, especially the acting, she tells him phone sex is acting, and she's fine.

After being put on leave by Lil, 6 starts her line, thanks to a strip club owner, played by the goddess Madonna. She goes way too deep with this, and does not realize it at all. She finally wakes up when a caller tells her she's "nobody!" He also tells her that he wants to put a bag over her head, have sex with her, all while suffocating our heroine. He then tells her he'll be over at her place soon, spouting off her address.

Thanks to screenwriter Parks, we skip to another topic, and leave the psycho on the back burner, never to be heard from again.

Aside from hearing men's fantasies all day, we learn Girl 6 has her own fantasies. She tells us, through words and fantasy sequences, how she wants to be certain actresses or TV characters. We see 6 as Dorothy Dandridge, the first African American to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar; in a parody of one of the best shows, "The Jeffersons"; and as tough ghetto mistress and diva Foxy Brown.

Thanks to a random subplot of an 8-year-old girl falling down an elevator shaft, we know when 6 starts to wake up and smell the Kool-Aid. When this story first appears, 6 realizes the wrongs she has done, and tries to figure out the rights and how to do them quickly. The metaphor Lee uses is blatant for 6's own fall toward loneliness, danger and despair.

We never quite learn any background of Randle's, Lee's or Washington's characters. Washington, aside from being 6's former husband, plays a kleptomaniac. The only thing we know about Jimmie is that he can't afford to pay his rent, and refuses to part with his precious baseball collection.

The other splashy thing about "Girl 6" is its music. The soundtrack of new and classic Prince songs is not to be missed. It adds a sort of ambiance and setting each scene. Unlike other movies, it isn't thrown in there to make a full-length soundtrack.

Spike Lee's "Girl 6" is a good, entertaining and funny movie. Randle never provides a dull moment, and neither do the plethora of cameos. Olive and I rate this movie, on a scale of $1.75 to $7, as a $4 movie.

"Girl 6": directed by Spike Lee; written by Suzan-Lori Parks; starring Theresa Randle (Girl 6), Naomi Campbell (girl 75), Madonna (Boss 3) and Spike Lee (Jimmy); soundtrack by Prince.

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