Sighhhhhh. What to make of Spike Lee’s film, She Hate Me ? I confess I rolled my eyes before I even left for the theatre because when a straight man purports to teach me (or anyone else) something about the lives and attitudes of lesbians, I have to wonder what he knows, or thinks he knows. Lee approached Tristan Taormino, a lesbian author and sex columnist for the Village Voice, to be a "technical consultant." Ms. Taormino tutored him in an accelerated "Lesbian Boot Camp" where Lee was required to read books, visit bars and participate in panel discussions. By the time you finish watching the film, though, you may wonder if Ms. Taormino was used as an unwitting shill.
There are many things I admire about Lee. You only have to hear the lush musical cues that hark back to pre-60s to understand that the man is all heart, and though you could take exception to many of the ideas bouncing and careening off the screen in such bombastic films as: She’s Gotta Have It, Do the Right Thing, Bamboozled and School Daze, the effect is intriguing, disturbing, intense and cogent. Mr. Lee usually leads with his emotions. His visual style is immediate and erratic, yet self-assured. He’s not afraid to luxuriate in the filmmaking process, but neither is he averse to tying us to a runaway train.
Sadly very little of his usual vigor and iconoclastic punch are to be found in She Hate Me. His usual, drumming, colloquial patter feels a bit forced and gratuitous. His caricatures of white people, Italians, and yes, lesbians lack the core truths that justify his previous films. I welcome the work of any artist that enables me to see Caucasians through the eyes of an African American, and ordinarily, Lee does this very well, but the numerous villains in She Hate Me are just too much like puppets. Or targets.
As much as anything, She Hate Me is about corruption, and the power of money to corrupt. It raises a cluster of other issues: racism, ethics, moral responsibility, scapegoating, eugenics, hypocrisy, but seems to pivot on how the desire for profit corrupts white-dominated, corporate America and the desperation for money corrupts our hero, John Armstrong.
John is sacked after reporting the unethical tactics of the firm where he works, and forced to find other methods of gainful employment when his assets are frozen. His ex-fiancée', Fatima, comes to call, and offers him $5000 a pop (hehehe) if he will agree to impregnate her and her female partner, Alex. She quickly realizes that John’s ability to inseminate makes him a “cash bull” and offers to broker his services to lesbian couples who wish to start a family and crave his genetic pedigree.
Article comments
1 - Snarkattack
Groan, it reminds me of those people who keep asking me whether I'm gay just because I keep raving about this brilliant novel by Sarah Waters called Tipping the Velvet (published by Virago Press).
Who cares whether I am or not? I want people to focus on the bloody book because it's good, not because its main character is gay! Ack! Is it being hinted to me that I could only enjoy such literature if I were gay? Are we really still that narrow-minded? I sincerely hope not. Though if this film is anything to go by, perhaps we still are generally speaking. How depressing.
2 - Purple Tigress
I haven't seen this movie, but I thought perhaps S. Lee was living out the male heterosexual fantasy of a menage a trois with two lesbians.
3 - Christopher Soden
Once I refused to submit a urine sample for a job as a customer service phone operator and (my hand to God) every single friend I told, the first words out of their mouth was: "Are you taking drugs?"
Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.