Definitely a minor work in the considerable oeuvre of one Spike Lee, the 1996 lark Girl 6 came after the brutal drama Clockers and before the equally devastating 4 Little Girls – it almost feels like an inconsequential palate-cleansing for Lee. Girl 6 is fitfully entertaining but on the whole, completely disposable.

Theresa Randle contributes a winning performance as struggling actress Judy, who after walking out of an audition with Quentin Tarantino and fed up with the exploitation of women's bodies, lands a job as a phone sex operator – the newly christened "Girl 6" quickly becomes addicted to her work, losing sight of reality and losing touch with her friend, Jimmy (Lee).

The screenwriting debut of playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and augmented with a lively soundtrack featuring old and new tunes from Prince, Girl 6 is an odd little duck of a flick. Directorially, Lee employs an arsenal of Oliver Stone-worthy visual tics (Godardian jump cuts, squeezed frames, grainy 16mm images) as well as some bizarre stunt casting – along with the aforementioned Tarantino cameo, Madonna, Naomi Campbell, Gretchen Mol, Michael Imperioli, Peter Berg, Isaiah Washington (of current Grey's Anatomy fame) and Debi Mazar all contribute turns, to varying degrees of success.

As a character study, Girl 6 works but as a frothy dramedy, not so much – the moment this flick ends, you'll have forgotten everything but Randle's effervescent performance; perhaps that's as it should be.

The Video:

Long overdue on DVD, Girl 6 arrives with a serviceable 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer that looks slightly misframed in certain sequences - most notably in the opening scene with Quentin Tarantino. It's the only section of the film that seemed out of whack to me, but the rest of Girl 6 looks vibrant and sharp – except of course for the phone sex clients, which Lee elected to film with digital video, leaving those scenes looking grainy and blown out. Fret not, it's intentional.

Outfitted only with a Dolby 2.0 stereo track, Girl 6 still come to groovy, thumping life when the Prince-saturated soundtrack kicks into gear. Dialogue is heard clearly and without distortion, as the film is built upon characters yakking, this is a plus.

I'm surprised and disappointed that Lee didn't contribute a commentary – he generally sits for a yack-track, but maybe it speaks to the relative unimportance of the work within his filmography that he skipped that this time around. What is on board is diverting but hardly extensive: the six minute featurette "The Making of 'Girl 6'," is followed by the 13 minute featurette "Behind The Scenes of 'Girl 6'." The film's trailer and a TV spot are included as are trailers for Downtown and Death Hunt.

A minor Spike Lee work, but graced with an effervescent Theresa Randle performance, Girl 6 is weirdly experimental fluff that won't linger long after the credits roll - Lee completists will want to pick this up posthaste but everyone else should be OK with a rental spin. Rent it.