comedy-drama
Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...
film directed by
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary ...
sexuality
Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...
, and
politics
Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...
. As with many of Lee's films, the film garnered controversy. Unlike many prior works, Spike Lee does not have an acting credit in this film.
The film was shot mostly on location in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, including each of the city's five boroughs. It was released on July 30, 2004, and grossed almost half a million dollars at the North American
box office
A box office or ticket office is a place where ticket (admission), tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a Wicket gate, wicket. ...
in limited release, with a worldwide revenue of $1.5 million, though it received generally negative reception from critics.
Plot
John Henry "Jack" Armstrong is a financially successful and upwardly mobile executive at a
biotechnology
Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...
firm who, following the suicide of a colleague, Dr. Herman Schiller, is falsely accused of
securities fraud
Securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, is a deceptive practice in the stock or commodities markets that induces investors to make purchase or sale decisions on the basis of false information.sperm donor, initially by acquiescing to the desires of Fatima Goodrich, his ex-fiancée who came out as a
lesbian
A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...
and now wants a child. There is still unresolved bitterness and tension between them over Armstrong and Goodrich's prior relationship, as before coming out, Armstrong discovered her cheating on him with another woman. Goodrich and her girlfriend, Alex Guerrero, offer Armstrong a substantial sum of money to impregnate them both. This leads to Goodrich goading Armstrong into establishing a business in which groups of lesbians come over to his house and pay him $10,000 each to have sex with them in order to become pregnant. This business becomes a success, along with many of the women enjoying the intercourse with him.
One of the women whom Armstrong impregnates is the daughter of a
mafia
"Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...
boss, Don Angelo Bonasera. Armstrong's employers learn of his impregnation business, and they use it in their campaign to sully his image in order to deflect attention from their own criminal business activities. Conflict is also depicted in the turbulent relationship between Armstrong's mother and his dependent diabetic father.
Armstrong's situation is portrayed as a '' cause célèbre'', with protests being held in support of or against him, and the news media interviewing people on the street with respect to his sexual activities. Armstrong is called before a committee of the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
investigating his alleged securities fraud, where both his services to lesbians and his relationship to the "Bonasera crime family" are raised.
Armstrong's situation is compared, to the plight of Frank Wills, the
security guard
A security guard (also known as a security inspector, security officer, factory guard, or protective agent) is a person employed by a government or private party to protect the employing party's assets (property, people, equipment, money, etc.) ...
who discovered the break-in that led to the
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the Presidency of Richard Nixon, administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Resignation of Richard Nixon, Nix ...
, which brought down President Nixon. He eventually wins the case and is seen with nineteen of the children he helped conceive. Powell, meanwhile, is eventually arrested for his crimes.
Armstrong and Goodrich come to terms with their lingering feelings for one another, and with the mutual attraction they share for Guerrero. They then begin a three-way polyamorous relationship, and Armstrong apparently maintains a friendship with all of the eighteen women who became pregnant by him.
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
player Rod Smart, who gained some notoriety by nicknaming himself "He Hate Me". The main character in the film references Smart when explaining why he has decided to nickname his ex-fiancée "She Hate Me".
Before filming, Lee hired lesbian author and sex columnist Tristan Taormino as a consultant. Taormino put Lee through "lesbian boot camp", in which she taught him about lesbian life through books, visits to lesbian bars, and panel discussions.
Filming, which was done on Super 16, took place in 28 days in New York City. The film featured a close-up scene of a real human birth, similarly to Lee's 1990 film '' Mo' Better Blues''.
Raul Midon sang the theme song for the movie, "Adam 'N' Eve 'N' Eve". In the film, Armstrong's brother disapproves of his impregnating lesbians and also uses the phrase "Adam 'N' Eve 'N' Eve.
Reception
Box office
The film grossed a total of $1,522,377 at the box office.
Critical response
''She Hate Me'' received a sharply negative reaction from film critics. On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, it has an approval rating of 20% based on 102 reviews, with an average score of 4.10/10. The site's critic consensus reads, "''She Hate Me'' can't decide if it wants to be a commentary on corporate greed or a sex farce". On
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the film has a score of 30 out of 100 based on 37 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
Many of the criticisms were focused on the film's messaging and the excesses of the plot.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
noted, "''She Hate Me'' contains enough for five movies, but has no idea which of those movies it wants to be. Some critics called it offensive, with Owen Gleiberman of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'' giving the film an "F" grade and writing it "manages to be at once racist, homophobic, utterly fake, and unbearably tedious. This time, it's Spike Lee who's doing the bamboozling."Wesley Morris of ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' opined, "the movie is rude and ridiculous, fearless up to a point, and breathtakingly hungry to provoke", but it "struggles between the audaciousness of its premise and an underlying defensiveness. The title...sounds like a jokey rebuke to people who've called Lee a misogynist. Yet when Lee tries to sober up ''She Hate Me'' with apology, to stitch a heart on its sleeve, the movie feels untrue to itself."
The film also generated controversy for its depiction of lesbian women and for portraying them as wanting to have sex with a man for procreative purposes. Trinidadian poet Erica Doyle commented that at the film's center is "an extensive male fantasy of having sex with lots of women — women who are usually inaccessible to most men." In response, Tristan Taormino said the film is not meant to represent all lesbians, while Lee explained that if the film showed lesbians having children in other ways, such as through adoption or IVF, it would not be as cinematically interesting. Lee added, " ristansaid, 'Spike, there's no way in the world you can make a film that every lesbian likes.' I'm glad she said that. It made me realize that lesbians are like any other group. They're not monolithic."
On the other hand, Stella Papamichael of the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
called the film "fascinating from start to finish," and Scott Foundas of '' Variety'' lauded it as "a scabrous, provocative and often funny social satire" with praise for the film's ensemble cast. Roger Ebert was also one of the few critics to give a positive review, awarding it three stars out of four.
Ebert wrote the film "will get some terrible reviews. Scorched earth reviews. Its logic, style, presumption and sexual politics will be ridiculed. ..Many of the things you read in those reviews may be true from a conventional point of view. Most of the critics will be on safe ground. I will seem to be wrong. Seeming to be wrong about this movie is one of the most interesting things I've done recently."
Ebert argued Lee knows the lesbian plot line is absurd, but uses it to "confront the pious liberal horror about such concepts as the inexhaustible black stud." He ultimately said the film "is alive and confrontational and aggressively in our face, and the man who made it has abandoned all caution, even to the point of refusing to signal his intentions, to put in a wink to let us see he knows what he's doing...''She Hate Me'' invites anger and analysis about the stereotypes it appears to celebrate; a film that attacked those stereotypes would inspire yawns. Think what you want on an Politically Correct level, but concede that ''She Hate Me'' is audacious and recklessly risky."
Later criticism reexamined and discussed the film's themes. In an essay for '' Little White Lies'', Erik Nielsen argued the film was misunderstood at the time of its release and that it is "a funny, sometimes ridiculous, yet ultimately insightful commentary on race inside American capitalism." Liam Carroll of ''The Spool'' posited that in making Jack an object available for women, Lee is "perhaps...trying to turn the objectification of women on its head: Jack often strips for his clients, who woo and scream and goad him on...Or perhaps Lee is commenting on the hoary old stereotype of the black male's alleged potent sexual virility. Problem is, this all falls apart when you bring in the lesbian factor. If these were straight women ogling Jack and using him as a mere sperm bank, then that would be one thing, but making these women lesbians feels nonsensical at best, and reductive at worst." Carroll concluded the themes of corporate greed and sexual mores were more effectively explored in Lee's previous works.
Award nominations
* BET Comedy Awards
** Outstanding Directing for a Theatrical Film (
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary ...