Spike Lee directed this comedy-drama about a woman who falls into a career in phone sex. An African-American woman (Theresa Randle) who aspires to a career as an actress endures a number of dispiriting jobs (handing out leaflets and working as a coat check girl) before reaching the end of her rope at an audition with Q.T. (Quentin Tarantino), a sleazy movie director. Q.T. claims that he wants to offer her a role in his next film -- but since the role requires nudity, she will have to show him
her breasts first. After firing her agent, the actress is strapped for cash and is offered a job enacting sexual fantasies for men over the phone. Dubbed "Girl 6" by her employers, the actress is treated with respect by her boss (Jennifer Lewis) and is well-liked by her co-workers. However, she has a hard time emotionally distancing herself from her work, and she finds herself becoming infatuated with Bob (Peter Berg), one of her regular callers, going so far as to set up a meeting with him. As she deals in other people's fantasies for a living, Girl 6 begins retreating into her own world of make-believe, where she can be a sexy screen siren or a butt-kicking blaxploitation star. Meanwhile, her former fiancé (Isaiah Washington), who scrapes by as a shoplifter, desperately wants her to give him another chance, and her next door neighbor, a baseball card collector named Jimmy (Spike Lee), keeps pestering her that she ought to be doing something more positive with her life. Girl 6's supporting cast includes Madonna as one of Girl 6's supervisors, John Turturro as her agent, and Debi Mazar as one of the other phone-sex girls; the film also features an original song score by Prince. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
[Randle] holds the film together as best she can with her luminous presence and dignity, but can't supply the lacking subtext, past history and motivation.
Lee's never been too hip to women's perspectives, and in Girl 6, he proves that marriage, maturity and 10 years of filmmaking haven't substantially corrected his blind spot.
While Lee is a skillful director, he's also more coldly analytical than emotional, and it is not his style to get us to feel for this woman as much as we should.
Lee is back to his independent roots, doesn't have an axe to grind and just enjoys playing with the camera and letting the actors, especially Randle, do the right thing.
There's something refreshing about the film's reckless proximity to anarchy, the stylishly imaginative cinematography and lusciously exorbitant Prince soundtrack, even if it does ring hollow when Lee tries to get serious on us.
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