What do you do after you have just met the love of your life?That's what I think about everytime I watch this week's Rewind Wednesday film. This by far is probably my Number #1 favorite movie. This 1997 romantic drama film that I speak of is that of Love Jones!! There's nothing like seeing the upward-mobile young African Americans journeying through love in the midst of Chicago's club culture. Love Jones by far is one of those films that goes down in the books as a classic love/romantic film, in addition to a fantastic piece of African American cinema. Movies like this are just not made any more, and I soooo miss that. Many viewers have asked why there is not an award for Best ensemble, considering this film showed a skill of "vivacity" that cannot be achieved through editing. You can't help but feel what they feel, that electricity flowing all through them. Love Jones is able to portray that "When harry met Sally" kind of feeling without being too mushy or sappy, like mosty typical romantic films.
Love Jones is a film worth upholding. It is a beautiful love tale full of realistic characters. It is one of the few black films in the last twenty years that deplicts blacks like we truly are: intelligent, cultural and just as obsessed with being in love as anyone else.
Lets take a look at what "love jones" is "an attraction for someone: you're feigning for them in evey way physical and mental. This definition right here exemplifies what the movie is all about. Nina (Nia Long) and Darius (Larenz Tate) have this spark that ignites between the two of them to the point that even when they are apart or even upset with each other they just want the other even more! They get together, fall apart, but somehow they manage to start all over and make anew. It was refreshing when this movie made its debut, it was during a time when you had the "shoot-em-up, gangsta" movies running rampant.
The success of Love Jones is partially responsible for an increased interest in poetry slams and the spoken word art form as a whole in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2002, HBO began airing Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam, hosted by actor/rapper Mos Def. Two of the poems recited by Nia Long's character Nina were written by Sonia Sanchez and are included in her book "Like the Singing Coming Off the Drums: Love Poems."
Not only did it have a fabolous plot, chararcter development/chemistry (Isaiah Washington, Bill Bellamy, Lisa Carson, Khalil Kain), but it had a soundtrack that just flowed with perfection. Another great thing about this film is that it is still relevant today!! What more can you ask for than a sexy, romantic love story! It never ceases to amaze me how great this film is to me. I can watch it a million times (probably that much lol) and never get tired of it. Its like watching it for the first time everytime. What more can ya ask for?!! Shoot now that I think of it maybe I need to go pop in the film and picture my V-Day Love Jones!
Here are some words to take you into a fantastic V-Day!! I still get teary-eyed everytime I hear and see this scene!!
Nina Mosley: You always want what you want when you want it. Why is everything so urgent with you?
Darius Lovehall: Let me tell you somethin'. This here, right now, at this very moment, is all that matters to me. I love you. That's urgent like a motherfucker.
