She's Gotta Have It (1986)
Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 28
Fresh: 26 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 1
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 6,215
My Rating
Movie Info
Spike Lee's breakthrough independent feature, shot in fifteen days on a budget of $175,000, ushered in (along with Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise) the American independent film movement of the 1980s. It was also a groundbreaking film for African-American filmmakers and a welcome change in the representation of blacks in American cinema, depicting men and women of color not as pimps and whores, but as intelligent, upscale urbanites. Lee's slight tale, which carries much psychological and
Aug 8, 1986 Wide
Jan 15, 2008
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Cast
-
Tracy Camilla Johns
Nola Darling -
Tommy Redmond Hicks
Jamie Overstreet -
John Canada Terrell
Greer Childs -
Spike Lee
Mars Blackman -
Raye Dowell
Opal Gilstrap -
Joie Lee
Clorinda Bradford -
Bill Lee
Sonny Darling -
Epatha Merkinson
Dr. Jamison -
Kathy Banks
Receptionist -
Cheryl Burr
Ava -
Renata Cobbs
Shawn -
Stephanie Covington
Keva -
Erik Dellums
Dog 3 -
Aaron Dugger
Noble -
Reginald Hudlin
Dog 4 -
Pamm Jackson
Female Walk-On -
Steve Nicks
Soundman -
Eric Payne
Dog 5 -
Cheryl Singleton
Toby -
Ernest R. Dickerson
Dog 8 -
Monty Ross
Dog 1 -
-
Gerard Brown
Dog 7 -
Geoffrey Garfield
Dog 12 -
Lewis Jordan
Dog 2 -
Scott Sillers
Dog 11 -
Marcus Turner
Dog 6 -
Eric Wilkins
Dog 9 -
-
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All Critics (28) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (29) | Rotten (2) | DVD (8)
All the elements of an interesting yarn are implicit here -- save one: a compelling central figure
This delightful low-budget comedy, with its all black cast and black humour, is 100 per cent Lee.
Top CriticThe film probes important and intriguing questions, even if the characters are not explored as thoroughly as they might have been.
Made for less than $30,000, Lee's first feature posed him as a mid-80s rival to Woody Allen, nearly equaling him in the psychological authenticity of his characters and perhaps bettering him in grace and virtuosity and sheer creative glee.
Light, scrappy entertainment that flatters everything funky and fresh about Lee, tempting you to forgive what is stunted or abrasive in the film. A major swaying element is his own on-screen persona.
Combining humor, drama, and documentary techniques, Lee has created an energetic film that takes an unflinching look at modern sexuality -- specifically black sexuality.
From the start, it was less important whether or not you agreed with Lee than if you appreciated him for stirring things up.
The extremely low-budget, black-and-white production became an American indie Cinderella story and a landmark for African-American cinema...
It's finally on DVD, so now fans of She's Gotta Have It can stop pleading, "Please, baby, please, baby, please, baby baby baby."
She's Gotta Have It's characters talk into the camera, but they do so in service of a Rashomon-tinged postmortem on how an artistic young woman couldn't make polyamory work in her favor.
After 22 years, Spike Lee's feature film debut still more than holds up for a bare bones production made on a shoestring budget in a dozen days.
New York Negro neurosis as source material for mirth, amusement and introspection, like a Woody Allen classic, only in blackface.
An assured debut, which Spike Lee produced, wrote, directed, edited, and acted in, offers him opportunity to show a slice of black urban life in which white characters don't even exist; the title and heroine's name are deliberately B-porn like picture
A good first effort that lacks quality acting and overall polish, but compensates with insightful black man's humor.
Audience Reviews for She's Gotta Have It
Super Reviewer
And of course there's Mars Blackmon himself...
Please baby please, baby baby please please!
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- Mars Blackman: Please-baby-please-baby-please-baby-baby- baby. Please!
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Foreign Titles
- Nola Darling n'en fait qu'à sa tête (FR)
