Nola’s still ‘Gotta Have It’ her way
Nola Darling may be dating three men at the same time, but not because she can’t make up her mind. In the new television take on Spike Lee’s career-launching film “She’s Gotta Have It,” Nola is not the same woman she was in 1986. Times have changed, and so has Nola.
Nola (a magnetic DeWanda Wise) is the hub of Spike Lee’s 10-episode comedy-drama whose first season is available on Netflix on Thursday, Nov. 23. She is a young, single woman living in the rapidly gentrifying Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, trying to get by on her job as a visiting artist working in the public schools for Raqueletta Moss (a fiercely powerful De’Adre Aziza).
Nola is impulsive, empowered, independent. She is unapologetically sleeping with
three men, the wealthy, married Jamie Overstreet (Lyriq Bent), the self-adoring model and photographer Greer Childs (Cleo Anthony), and the goofy but lovable Mars Blackmon (Anthony Ramos), defiantly dyslexic and fond of dressing like a cartoon character.
Each man would like an exclusive arrangement with Nola, but it’s not their decision to make. In this area, and in others, Nola controls her own life, if not her destiny. That said, she does give in to impulse, which usually involves buying things like a $400 dress she cannot afford, and screwing up a new relationship with Opal (Ifenesh Hadera), an older woman Nola falls hard for.
At other times, though, her impulsiveness is depicted as evidence of her self-empowerment as a young woman living in the city. She shares that sense of self with other young women, including Shemekka Epps (Chyna Lane), a waitress at a hip club who is being held back from becoming a dancer because her butt isn’t considered large enough for the job. Clorinda Bradford (Margot Bingham) works at a gallery and is supportive of Nola as a person and an artist. She may be frustrated at times by Nola’s impulsiveness, but she has her back. Septima Darling (Joie Lee) is Nola’s wise, loving and tolerant mom. She’ll support whatever Nola wants to do in life as long as she believes in herself.
Nola becomes even more defiantly empowered when, first, street art she has created is vandalized with anti-feminist graffiti, and later when she is attacked on the street on her way home one night. There was an attack in the original film, one that prompted some criticism because some interpreted the scene as a young woman being punished for being sexual.
The attack this time is milder, and Nola fights her attacker off. Accordingly, the point is made that Nola is allowed to dress and look any way she wants to without sending a message that she can be sexually assaulted.
Spike Lee, who created, wrote and directed the series, relies frequently on having his characters break the fourth wall and speak directly to us. It doesn’t feel at all forced and becomes an important augmentation of character throughout the film. He also uses flashbacks from time to time, and stylized camerawork, most of which works beautifully. I’m on the fence about the effectiveness of the final episode, which is essentially a thematic summary of Nola’s journey. The scene is visually stunning but strains credibility in ways that even the fourthwall breaks do not.
Wise delivers a knockout performance, touching all the right notes to create a complex, three-dimensional character. Nola is noble and heroic, yes, but she’s also childishly giddy with the options she claims in her love life.
The rest of the cast is great as well, especially Ramos, playing the big-hearted goofball Lee himself played in the original film (the filmmaker does give himself a cameo in the series). Greer Childs could be a tiresome piece of meat without Anthony’s wise, nuanced performance, allowing us to see the vulnerability beneath the braggadocio. Bent does a solid job with the role of Overstreet, a cheater with a bad marriage.
No doubt, every viewer will be rooting for Nola to settle down with one of the four suitors, including Opal, but in the case of “She’s Gotta Have It,” happily ever after isn’t settling at all.