Spike Lee has a new movie out called She Hate Me and, as usual, the filmmaker seems to have a lot on his mind. Making sense of exactly what that might be, however, is beginning to seem like more trouble than it's worth.It's been a long time since Lee has made a genuinely good movie — or even a genuinely coherent one — and the cumulative effect of his recent efforts almost makes it seem as if the director is attempting to pass off unchecked rambling as some sort of signature style. Lee hits a new low in She Hate Me, a movie that spews so much random, senseless, undigested matter that it seems more like projectile vomiting than filmmaking.
She Hate Me is a mess. The movie begins as a quasi-political thriller about an Enron-esque corporate conspiracy, intermittently transforms into a shallow, tedious sex comedy, throws in pointless cameos like a horribly miscast John Turturro as a Mafia Don babbling on about mob etiquette, and ends as a bargain-basement courtroom drama. The tone is all over the place, flitting with little apparent regard for pace or structure from overly earnest drama to preachy satire to comedy to farce. As usual, Lee touches on a number of timely and provocative topics, but he doesn't bother to process them or effectively incorporate them into his story, much less tie them together in any sort of meaningful or understandable way. They're just so many sound bites in a formless barrage that feels, you should pardon the expression, like so much white noise.
Lee's central character here is Jack Armstrong (Anthony Mackie), a successful young African-American executive who, as the movie opens, is beginning to get wind of some extremely shady doings at the giant pharmaceutical company where he works. In the interests of doing the right thing, Jack considers blowing the whistle on his bosses, only to get himself canned for his troubles. All of this is set up and played out with much heavy-handed fanfare, but as soon as the film seems like it might actually be headed somewhere, Lee proceeds to discard this entire storyline, re-introducing it only in fits and starts throughout the remainder of his 140-minute slog.
No sooner is Jack fired than his gorgeous ex-girlfriend shows up at his door, her new, equally gorgeous lesbian lover in tow, offering to pay our cash-strapped hero a pile of money in exchange for impregnating them. It's worth noting that Jack's full name is actually John Henry, because, just like that steel-drivin' man of yore, he can do the work of 10 men — although Jack's particular talent isn't building railroads but making babies. Once our hero has successfully knocked up his ex, he promptly finds swarms of baby-craving dykes beating down his door for a dose of that super high-quality sperm.
It's not enough, incidentally, that each of these women inexplicably requires Jack to deliver the goods in person, the old-fashioned way, as opposed to the syringe or turkey baster that most sensible sisters of Sappho would probably prefer. No, Lee makes a point of regaling us with steamy montages of lesbians (mostly of the fashion-model-pretty lipstick variety) being brought to tearful orgasm by the sexual ministrations of this one good, straight man. It's an absurdist fever dream that Spike plays almost completely straight, either unable or unwilling to recognize, much less capitalize on, the outrageousness of the stereotypes he's throwing up on the screen.
Lee seems to have no master plan and only the sketchiest control over his elements here, presenting scenes that should be humorous as straight drama, and allowing other aspects of the film, like the corrupt business mogul played by Woody Harrelson, to take on the broad, flat dimensions of a children's cartoon. For that matter, we keep waiting for the movie's political conspiracy angle to somehow mesh with its sexual/romantic meanderings, but it never quite happens.
Not only do all of the various threads in She Hate Me remain scattered throughout, but Lee's alternative to any sort of resolution or even clarity is to take the movie in yet another direction, hurling one more thing at the screen in hopes that it'll finally stick. Don't like the faux-Enron stuff or the scores of lesbians alternately castrating and worshipping at the phallic altar of Lee's protagonist? Then how about a soap-opera sub-plot involving Jack's wise old diabetic father, or maybe a series of vaguely symbolic flashbacks of the Watergate break-in? Yes, even Richard Nixon makes an appearance in She Hate Me, and the movie's none the richer for it.
It's difficult to communicate just how deeply disappointing this movie is. Lee is a filmmaker who has made some very good films in his time, and at least one great one (Do the Right Thing), but the muddled fiasco of She Hate Me comes very close to confirming the filmmaker as someone who does indeed have a lot on his mind, but precious little to say. Better films than this have driven the final nail in the coffin of many a fine filmmaker's reputation.
An On-Air Festival
Fall is film festival time in Florida, as in so many other spots around the world, and the season officially kicks off in the Bay area with the Tampa Educational Cable Consortium's Independents' Film Festival.
At a time when other film festivals and venues are taking fewer and fewer chances, the Independents' Film Festival's commitment to non-name-brand cinema is stronger than ever. For the past 11 years, IFF has been showcasing some of the most promising work produced by aspiring and up-and-coming filmmakers from Tampa to Thailand, and the festival's programming just keeps getting better.
This isn't your typical film festival in one other respect, since IFF attendees can experience most of what the festival offers without even leaving the comfort of their living rooms. All of the festival's selections will be broadcast exclusively on The Education Channel (cable channel 18 in Hillsborough County) on three successive weekends during the month of September, so all you need is a cable-ready TV and you're good to go. The whole thing culminates in a pair of Best of Fest live events taking place on Sept. 18 and 19 at Tampa Theatre and Sunrise Cinemas.
The opening weekend of IFF's on-air programming includes three hours of Florida student films on Friday, Sept. 10; a selection of shorts from local independent filmmakers and artists, including Jeff Whipple and Stewart Lippe, on Saturday, Sept. 11; and four full hours of Florida documentaries and features on Sunday, Sept. 12. Upcoming highlights include a program of youth-oriented films on Saturday, Sept 18, an evening of political works on Sunday, Sept 19, and a selection of student shorts and animations on Sunday, Sept. 26.
All programs in the Independents' Film Festival will air on the Education Channel beginning at 9 p.m. each evening. For additional information on the movies or schedule check the website: www.independentsfilmfest.com or call 813-254-2253.
lance.goldenberg@weeklyplanet.com or letters@weeklyplanet.com
This article appears in Sep 1-7, 2004.