By Matt Brunson
GOOD HAIR
***
DIRECTED BY Jeff Stilson
STARS Chris Rock, Maya Angelou
Like most odysseys, Good Hair begins with a single, simple question. "Daddy, why don't I have good hair?" the little girl asks of her celebrity pop. And armed with that disturbing query, Chris Rock sets off to make a movie that turns out to be endlessly fascinating and funny.
Along with director Jeff Stilson, Rock uses his documentary to examine the complex relationship that African-American women and many men (Prince is the target of a well-timed jibe) have with their hair. And for a movie that runs just over 90 minutes, the pair cover an extraordinary amount of ground. Interviewing both celebrities and ordinary citizens alike, Rock manages to engage participants in discussions on the dangers of hair relaxers (aka "creamy crack"), the high cost of weaves, the distribution of the wealth earned by hair products created specifically for blacks (Asians and Caucasians benefit the most), the idiocy of straightening the hair of little girls (some as young as three), and, tying it all together, the cultural significance of hairstyles for black women and the drive among many to blend in (i.e. look more white) by any means necessary. On top of all this, Rock also manages to squeeze in a trip to India, home to the vast majority of hair purchased by African-American women (the hair is usually collected at temples where locks are shorn as a religious sacrifice, although one disturbing interlude finds a sleazy man discussing how hair is sometimes cut off women while they sleep).
Good Hair is such a marvelous movie for most of its running time and Rock proves to be such a good guide, both affable and eager to learn that it's a shame several missteps are taken toward the end. One bit finds Rock trying to sell to no avail bags of black women's hair, a silly stunt that smacks of Michael Moore grandstanding. The movie's climactic set piece revolves around a gaudy show in which various oddballs compete for the honor of being deemed the best hairstylist by a panel of supercilious judges an amusing sequence that's nevertheless too trite to anchor the home stretch. And, most jarringly, Rock unwisely chooses to end the picture with a rude remark by Ice-T, an insulting selection considering the movie is packed with choice quotes by the (female) likes of Maya Angelou and Tracie Thoms. On balance, though, Good Hair stands as an informative and entertaining documentary, and one that's pulled off with no small measure of style.