Review of Good Hair (2009) by Ben T — 08 Jan 2011

Chris Rock's documentary Good Hair has some interesting moments, but for the most part, his film is just an exercise in mediocrity. Rock consistently forsakes all the interesting or dark points in the discussion of the weave for the sake of cheap gimmicks and a metaphor for black hair care that feels imposed and pithy. Weaves might be expensive, and the obsession with hair in the black community might be reminiscent of addition, but constantly comparing the acquisition and use of weaves to the ingesting of hard drugs is a disservice to weaves and hard drugs. The more interesting point of discussion for weaves is, incidentally enough, Rock's starting point: his daughter's query about why she doesn't have good hair. Rather than interrogate a system of social practices that dictates what good hair is and why black hair doesn't fit that category, Rock chooses to focus on the lengths women go to have good hair (pun intended?), because that's a better starting point for jokes. What's worse is that Rock's jokes aren't even particularly funny. In one scene, Rock attempts to sell black hair to unwilling customers; their reactions are expected and unsurprising. Unlike Borat, who played with people's misconception in an extreme manner, Rock plays directly into people's misconceptions in obvious ways. The result is painful and stale.

Good Hair has so many excellent starting points but not a lot of development. I would have loved to see a half an hour spent on Al Sharpton's eloquent speech about hair as a form of oppression - social, political, and economic oppression. Rock also had the ability to discuss the disturbing source of human hair used in making extensions, wigs, and weaves: devout Indian men, women, and children who shave their heads for religious purposes. Their hair is then sold to entrepreneurs in India, who then sell it overseas for thousands of dollars. There's also a lot of great conversation happening at hair salons, where working women invest thousands of dollars - per sitting!- for a weave. Alas, Rock is much more interested in passively displaying weave culture. The testimonies he collects are informative. And ultimately, there is a celebration of weave culture at the end of the film that undoes anything that Rock's film could have done.