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.

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.