SummaryAn exposé of comic proportions that only Chris Rock could pull off, Good Hair visits beauty salons and hairstyling battles, scientific laboratories and Indian temples to explore how hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks and self-esteem of the black community. (Roadside Attractions)
Directed By:Jeff Stilson
Written By:Chris Rock, Jeff Stilson, Lance Crouther, Chuck Sklar, Paul Marchand
Good Hair
Metascore
Generally Favorable
72
User score
Generally Favorable
7.1
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
89% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
11% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
88
Although its tone is generally genial and jovial, Good Hair touches on some tricky issues, at times complicitly.
80
Thanks to Rock's running monologue, combining scathing humor with trenchant observations, the film manages to be side-splitting even while making its most poignant points.
78
Hair is personal. It's also political.
75
"Our self-esteem is wrapped up in it,'' admits actress Tracie Thoms (who sticks with a natural curly look). "A woman's hair is her glory,'' Angelou says.
75
Rock takes his Good Hair job as a documentarian seriously enough to be interesting, but not so seriously that the film groans with earnestness.
70
Entertaining and substantive enough to be interesting even for those completely unfamiliar with weaves and relaxers.
40
Breezy, superficial documentary.
User score
Generally Favorable
73% Positive
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
18% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
9% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Sep 5, 2024
6
Chris Rock digs into the big-money world of black hairstyling. In between interviews with the small local businesses who unabashedly make a killing on weaves (one blue-haired stylist with a packed waiting room proudly proclaims that her work "starts at a thousand"), Rock finds some unsettling truths about the origins of this product, the toxicity of the ever-popular "relaxers" women gladly glob on their scalps, and the showy world of celebrity hairdressers in Atlanta. Rock's no Michael Moore, and the investigative bits are revealing but not particularly thorough; he's at his best when he's in his element, joking with patrons and poking fun at the hapless boyfriends mournfully waiting in the lobby while their wallets run out of steam. A bit long at ninety-six minutes. It's only got enough gas for seventy or eighty, but the material makes for decent fun while it lasts.
