Review of She's Gotta Have It (1986) by Veronica A — 02 Oct 2009

The first and least pretentious film that director Spike Lee made was SHES GOTTA HAVE IT, a romantic comedy about relationships that qualifies as one of his best films. This modest but compelling portrait of single, independently minded black woman Nola Darling has got to be one of the greatest feminist films ever made. The cast, headed by Tracy Camilla Johns, is largely unknown, but they perform well in this simple, but powerful 84 minute melodrama that asks the audience to decide if the leading ladyâ??Nolaâ??is a freak. In other words, is Nola a slut because she has three boyfriends that she has sex with in her apartment in New York City.

Lee makes excellent use of the technique of breaking the fourth wallâ??when the thespians address the audience by looking directly into the camera at usâ??and taking their argument to us. The heroine has a relationship with a romantically inclined lover Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks), a stuck-up, egotistical performer Greer Childs (John Canada Terrell), and young, snappy street dude Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee). None of the three guys likes each other as they struggle to please Nola. One of Nolaâ??s apartment house neighbors is an attractive lesbian Opal Gilstrap (Raye Dowell of MALCOLM X) who tries without success to seduce Nola. Nola has no problem taking three guys to bed and she will only make love in her own bed with scores of candles blazing.