She's Gotta Have It (1986)

Spike Lee's low-budget, directorial debut "She's Gotta Have It" ranks as the outspoken African-American's helmer's best and least pretentious film. This modest but compelling portrait of single black woman Nola Darling qualifies as one of the greatest feminist films of the 1980s. The theme of women versus men dominates the action with the corresponding themes of women versus women and women versus society tangling for second place. The men fall back on the traditional precedents that society has established for women. Consequently, this melodrama exposes the sexual double-standard issue between men and women. Indeed, men cite dating multiple women as their masculine birthright, while a woman must only date one man at a time. "She's Gotta Have It" torpedoes that argument with its unorthodox heroine. Moreover, coming as it did on the last years of "blaxploitation" movie, Lee's film is refreshing different because none of the men are portrayed stereotypically as either pimps or drug dealers. 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 lady—Nola—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 wall—when the thespians address the audience by looking directly into the camera at us—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 Nola's apartment house neighbors is an attractive lesbian Opal Gilstrap (Raye Dowell of "Malcolm X") who tries without success to seduce Nola.

When reviewing all of Spike's work, this is hands down, probably my all-time favorite. This project introduced us to the incomparable Mars Blackman, Spike's oh so charming alter ego. "She's Gotta Have It" is a wonderful treatise on the art of love and war from interesting perspectives. On top of that, it is quite hilarious.It is a refreshing look at a black woman who insists on taking control of her sexuality rather than allowing it to be defined by men. There are general male observations, general female observations, and specific cultural outlooks on the art of love and war from an African-American perspective.Tracy Camilla Johns, beautifully portraying the wonderfully developed character, Nola Darling, is perfectly cast as the independent black woman who, in her quest to be sexually independent, realizes this is an uphill journey when dealing with men who still have traditional ideas about women and their roles. She was actively dating more than one man simply because she had adapted the attitude that no one man can provide everything she wanted/needed and furthermore, it was terribly unfair to label her promiscuous for doing so. Interestingly enough, Nola also found that her own reactions when coming up against the same attitude in men, were amazingly traditional.This was a very well-written statement on the ups and downs of love. It also introduces us to Law & Order's Divine Epatha Merkerson in a short but pivotal role as a sex therapist.Eeeeeeeeeeeeeexcellent movie!!!

I remember when this movie came out. Not Spikes first film but first to gain him some attention. A very refreshing black and white low budget movie, probably one of Spikes most dedicated and best work. All characters well developed and script carefully written. A good film to watch on a lazy Sunday, showing scenes of Brooklyn as it was in the 80s.

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.