A very rough early effort from Spike Lee, featuring both good and bad elements of his work in near equal measure - his unique narrative voice, his sense of style in cinematography, his love of musicals and 30s cinema, poor pacing, meandering plot structure and bizarre tonal shifts. Interesting to see Lee's style develop from his earliest works but one for the purists - a great example of his formative style but not the pinnacle of his achievements.

"She's Gotta Have It's characters talk into the camera, but they do so in service of a Rashomon-tinged postmortem on how an artistic young woman couldn't make polyamory work in her favor." - Eric Henderson

A really enjoyable blend of classical sensibility and Lee's own distinctive style. It's haphazard, but in a way that sets it apart from other romantic comedies (though that label, while ostensibly true, doesn't really get at this film). It's also admirably feminist, if uncertainly so, and features a really distinctive cast of characters - not the least of which is Lee himself in his turn as Mars Blackmon.

It shows all the talent Spike will later have, but he's let down by a very weak lead actress and a kind of weak lead actor. However, he's absolutely hysterical.

Interesting and well-written film with a good premise, but marred by poor acting from nearly the entire cast, especially the leads. Spike Lee is the only one who isn't awful in front of the camera.

One of the best student films ever but not that great in comparison to other Spike Lee movies. It suffers from terrible acting and a pretty slow pace. It's cool to see that he went from this to Do the Right Thing in only 3 years...incredible.

Sometimes interesting, but mostly lame. The director is ironically the only passable actor here.

This is a very simple and endearing low-budget comedy.

The film has an agreeably ramshackle quality; it's the flickering images of a filmmaker getting ideas onto screen before they're fully formulated, but these philosophical fragments are interesting nonetheless, maybe even more interesting because of their undercooked quality. It also makes the film's big ideas elusive: What sort of post-feminist statement is Lee trying to make with his self-empowered female artist shuffling aimlessly through her trio of paramours? I'm not sure Lee himself knows.

Lee's first feature is somewhat like Cassavetes' Shadows. Like that film, it bristles with a raw energy but is dragged down by poor acting. There's also a Woody Allen quality to it. Allen's dialogue is sometimes over-written, but he almost always makes it work. This is where Lee fails... these lines often just don't sound right. But even though the flaws bothered me, I don't want to dismiss this as a mere Cassavetes/Allen ripoff. There's a strong, unique voice at work here.