Jackson Booth-Millard
This film is the directorial debut of Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Inside Man), also writing, editing and producing, and it featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so I looked forward to it. Basically Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns) is a young, attractive, sexually independent woman living in Brooklyn, New York, she is juggling with three suitors: polite and well-meaning Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks), self-obsessed model Greer Childs (John Canada Terrell) and immature, motor-mouthed Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee). The three men all have their good qualities, which Nola is attracted to, but she refuses to commit to a relationship with any of them, each of them want Nola for themselves, but she cherishes her personal freedom. The carefree sexually liberated lifestyle of Nola ultimately comes to an end when Jamie, Greer and Mars meet and compare notes on Nola, Greer justifies her behaviour claiming that she sees them as a collective rather than as individuals, while the other two are bitter of how little she cares for the three of them. Jamie realises that Mars and Greer are too scared to force Nola to choose one of three of them and losing her, so he lays down an ultimatum to her that she must choose a lover, Nola mocks this idea, and returns to him days later for casual sex. Jamie anally rapes Nola and mocks her, asking if he is as good a lover as Greer or Mars, following this she has an epiphany, she realises her promiscuity has turned Jamie against her, so she decides to call his bluff, dumps Greer and Mars, and tells Jamie she is ready for committed relationship with him. There is a catch though, Nola believes her promiscuity is the source of her inability to commit to one man, she wants the relationship with Jamie for the time being to be celibate, he initially rejects this decree, but eventually agrees. However the reunion of Nola and Jamie and any "happy ending" is dismantled, in a monologue to camera Nola reveals that she had "a moment of weakness" vowing to be celibate and be with Jamie exclusively, she cheated on him and the relationship collapsed, but she is vague about specifics or whether or not she resumed casual affairs with Mars or Greer. Nola proudly proclaims that monogamy for her was a form of slavery and that the lifestyle of promiscuity is freedom in its purest form, however it is implied that Nola remains extremely unhappy deciding to leave Jamie, and the film ends with Nola going to bed all alone. Also starring Raye Dowell as Opal Gilstrap, Joie Lee (Spike's sister) as Clorinda Bradford, Terminator 2: Judgement Day's S. Epatha Merkerson as Doctor Jamison, Bill Lee (Spike's father) as Sonny Darling, Cheryl Burr as Ava, Aaron Dugger as Noble, Stephanie Covington as Keva and Renata Cobbs as Shawn. Johns is her debut role gives a great performance as the strong willed young woman who has to "have it" and refuses to be tied down by one of three men, Hicks gets some good moments, and Lee himself as a fast-talking persistent irritant of sorts gets many of the best lines, he directs this very slickly, and it has a fantastically witty and sophisticated script. Filmed in black and white, the only floury into colour is a lovely birthday themed observed dancing sequence, with simplistic interactions and discussions of sex and commitment, macho egos trying to compete and of course the sexual scenes, this film shows that you do not have to have arguments or traumatic material to make an entertaining film, I would certainly recommend this fantastic comedy drama. Very good!
andrew_zito
It left me with the fair and decent taste of realism and romance, sex and love, forethought and spontaneity, intelligence and some of the dumb situations that all less than people find themselves outside of "Holywood" (Hollywood haha). In places people actually can talk to you in public rather than posing and pretending they are gangsters and what they are not.A production about real people trivialized by any mention of a production budget, a script that which is so much alive and intelligent from the last urban bastions like Brooklyn which the "SluBlubrias" (Suburbia) of America and all the industrial world which sorely miss and find it difficult to compete on such levels.A classic in romance and thought which made me feel like I was there.Stupid white productions with budgets and no soul eat your hearts out.The acting was excellent, sad part is that productions like this are not so often show on TV. A great work on the humanism of the human spirit.TEN STARS
slaususe2
The "she" that the movie title refers to, played by Traci Camilla Johns, is a beautiful, intelligent young black woman that also happens to be a nymphomaniac. While other people's beds are just places to sleep in, the lead character's bed is a shrine to be worshipped as evidenced by her propensity to adorn it with ceremonial candles. Her main sexual partners are a nerd (Spike), a wanna-be playboy, and a earnest young man who is actually interested in a relationship.I appreciate that Spike helped blaze for other young black filmmakers with his very personal approach to film-making but I never could understand why luminaries like Terri McMillan were so impressed with this film. It's a self-indulgent Spike Lee pipe dream, at best, with characters that I found it hard to care about. Why would a woman as fine as Traci Camilla Johns include a character as annoying as Spike's character among her lovers? After two hours, I thought I would at least have a better understanding of why "she has to have it", but alas that wasn't the case.The real value in watching this movie to me is observing how much the talented Lee has progressed since then. It's not bad movie, just uneven. It's unfortunate Spike didn't really put the alluring Ms. Johns to much use in future films. 7 out of 10.
