Written by Andreas Babiolakis

To honour Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes on the twenty year mark of her unfortunate passing, here is a review of The Last Days of Left Eye: a documentary that was her final statement to the world.

Ever since I was a late teenager, I have felt a connection with the late Lisa Lopes, perhaps because I was a young soul that felt like the misfit that people misunderstood. Before the days of social media where so much information passes through our consciousness, someone like Lopes may have been treated with more consideration. Then again, her misfortunes could have also been scrutinized even more heavily. It’s tough to know how the rapper and artist would have fared today, but I do know that she would have been someone to exercise her voice and image in her own way. She would have loved that side of social media, and maybe not the fixation on blame and judgment that many celebrities have to endure. If only she could see how the world loves her so now. On this twentieth year since her passing, there is adoration poured from all over the globe. Figurines are still being made in her image. Commemorative memorabilia are sold. If anything, her resilience never left.

Lopes was — of course — the rapper and a main visionary behind the R&B group TLC, and she worked alongside singers Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas (during the classic lineup most of the world would know); Lopes would be the L in this equation not by her birth name but via her nickname “Left Eye” (she was christened as such after a guy told her she had a beautiful left eye). The trio would skyrocket during the new jack swing era of the early ‘90s thanks to their female empowerment, lessons on safe sex (trademarked by their imagery of condoms, especially Lopes’ usage of one as a monocle over her nick-namesake), and Lopes’ artistic direction. See, Lopes was the only member that consistently wrote her own lyrics, and she also spearheaded the theme and milieu of each album. Their debut album Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip was full of hits, and the three artists were keeping up with acts like Bell Biv DeVoe. Everything was looking fantastic, until it wasn’t.

All that we knew during a time where media had the final say on a subject is that Lopes and her then-partner Andre Rison (an NFL wide receiver) were having relationship problems, and that Lopes burned down their house in a fit of rage. Lopes was labeled an alcoholic instead of being heard, and she was seen as the “crazy” in TLC’s magnum opus album CrazySexyCool (a more mature outing than their debut, and a celebration of silkier R&B to the point of verging on neo soul at times); Lopes’ voice was limited on this album, unfortunately, but her verse in the hit “Waterfalls” was one that would define her career from then on. Her image wasn’t being helped, unfortunately, despite having one of the greatest selling albums of all time and being a forefront for the then-recent wave of female MCs that were on the rise more than ever before. FanMail would come next, and Lopes was muted even more; her acclaimed verse in “No Scrubs” — which debuted her deeper, ripened rapping cadence — was shockingly cut from the album’s version, for instance. Despite her best efforts, Lopes was continuously pegged as “troublesome” by everything outside of her control. That’s when she needed to get away.

Lopes was feeding into the backlash by the time she left to go to Honduras. She challenged the other TLC members to make solo albums to prove their individual worths (Lopes’ album Supernova was only released in Japan, was abandoned by her label Arista Records. Lopes was also not showing up to major events (why do so when they won’t help her negative perception gestated by tabloids?). This was her moment to cleanse herself, free her mind, and get back to square one: a spiritual pilgrimage that can push out all of the negative toxins of the world and fame. This was also the perfect opportunity for Lopes to clear her name. We can now finally start talking about the film that’s at the heart of this review: Lauren Lazin’s documentary The Last Days of Left Eye. Lopes could speak from the heart and clarify a number of things, and the documentary does just that. Lopes didn’t set fire to the house intentionally. She had a poor lapse of judgement in setting fire to Rison’s sneakers when she found out he was being unfaithful and was showing typical signs of abuse. While CrazySexyCool was as successful as it was, the band was still broke, and Lopes goes into why (I’ll let her get into all of those details). Instead of having to talk to a brick wall, Lopes was able to finally introduce herself to us in the ways that she intended, and she details her entire life from her upbringing (with her military father) to the very point she decided to go on vacation. We see her and her close loved ones in Honduras as well, and it’s at this point that The Last Days of Left Eye would have been a strong documentary in relation to the rapper’s testimonials and perspective that we kept being shied away from.

However, the bittersweet truth of documentaries are that they sometimes capture what wasn’t intended. With the hours of footage that Lazin and her crew accumulated, there’s an additional subplot that we know is coming, and it’s presented in the very title of the film (which likely wouldn’t have been named as such if Lopes were still with us). We know that her death is imminent, especially because Lopes lost her life in an accident during this very trip. While the film focuses on her spirituality and fascination with the unknown, it taps into her familiarity with ghosts and omens, and these are additional themes that we can’t escape in such an unfortunate set of circumstances; Lazin does her best to be respectful of these notions, and uses them to enhance what Lopes was feeling in her final hours, rather than exploit her demise for artistic purposes. It’s easy to see that Lopes was “predicting” that something would happen to her because of how The Last Days of Left Eye is assembled, but the film is edited in a way that spoke as Lopes as if she was still here, not in a way that Lazin was trying to force. It’s sad that The Last Days of Left Eye was Lopes’ final voice, but it was still exactly what she planned on: her voice to the world.

The Last Days of Left Eye is a conventional documentary that was meant to be heard by all, but it still would have been a fascinating watch because of the amount of revelations Lopes was ready to spill. Nothing here is gossipy either; Lopes was wanting to clear her conscience, our minds, and the air. When the film starts to dip into her awareness of fate and the inexplicable — particularly through a portion of the film where Lopes details a sensation of a cursed spirit that was following her despite her escape to Honduras — that’s when The Last Days of Left Eye turns into something completely mystifying. Even if you don’t believe in ghosts (I personally don’t), there’s something haunting about the final act of The Last Days of Left Eye. I don’t believe that Lopes prophesied her own passing, but this was something that felt very true to her, and this really is her own film through and through. Of course, had nothing happened, these nefarious visions may have even been edited out of the film. Again, that’s the kind of on-the-fly storytelling that documentaries are capable of, particularly when you allow what you capture to tell the tale. The Last Days of Left Eye was initially being made to allow a misunderstood soul to finally have her say. It would up being a cinematic swan song of vulnerability, and a reminder that anything can happen and that life is short. I wish Lisa Lopes was listened to when she was still around. I wish she was given a chance. Her legacy now tells such a different story than how she was once received while she was still alive. I don’t believe in ghosts living amongst us, but I feel like she would have felt differently, and in her case, I hope that she can see how she is loved now. The Last Days of Left Eye acts as this bridge; from artist to fan; from misfit to the world; from soul to those that miss her.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from X University (formerly known as Ryerson), as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.