March 14th, 2017 marked the 20th anniversary of the classic movie Love Jones. This film tells the love story between a young black poet from Chicago named Darius Lovehall (Larenz Tate), and a beautiful photographer named Nina Moseley (Nia Long). In honor of its anniversary, let’s recap the best things of this amazing film.
1. The soundtrack
With songs from Lauryn Hill, Xscape, and Amel Larrieux, this soundtrack had the best of the bests in R&B, Soul and Jazz from the 90s. This soundtrack (and the score per se) made the movie sexier and more romantic than it already was.
2. How it depicts real love, not fairytale love
In this movie, it’s not all rainbows and butterflies. Normally, movies just show how the couple gets together, but never what happens next (aka, the actual relationship). This film shows how a real relationship is, with the boring parts and everything, and how sometimes people just fall out of love. It showed the fights and passion. It depicted their entire relationship rather than just the beginning of it.
3. The cast
This cast was phenomenal for its time because Larenz Tate (from Menace II Society and The Postman), Isaiah Washington (from The 100 and Romeo Must Die), Leonard Roberts (from Drumline and He Got Game) and Lisa Nicole Carson (from Jason’s Lyric and Eve’s Bayou) were all a part of it. It had young, talented black actors and actresses who perfectly portrayed their generation’s love for jazz and love.
4. Nia Long
I know the cast was already mentioned, but this is a special one so it had to go alone. The leading lady was no other than the beautiful, talented and infamous, Nia Long. Being one of the best actresses in the African American Film Industry, Long stole the show with her acting in this film. She’s been in other 90’s movies such as Friday, Boyz n the Hood, Soul Food and Hav Plenty. Long was also Will’s love interest in Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Long gave this movie the touch it needed in order to become a classic.
5. That last kiss in the rain
What’s a love movie without a kiss in the rain, especially when it’s the last scene in the film. Spoiler Alert: This movie ends with Darius, being as smooth as he can be, getting out of his motorcycle, and him and Nina expressing their love for one another in the pouring rain, and then ending it with a passionate kiss. Although in real life kissing under the rain seems like a real hassle, this scene is definitely the cutest one of the movie, especially knowing that after all those fights and break ups they end up together.
6. Darius’s Love Poem
The most memorable scene from this movie is when Darius met Nina for the first time. He got up to recite this amazing poem. This poem, which is in the soundtrack, is still well known, and made a remarkable impression. You talk about Love Jones with someone and I guarantee you the first thing you’ll talk about is this poem. Darius talks about how he wants to love Nina down, of course in words way more beautiful than that. He uses a bit of jazz music, especially some saxophone, and some humor as well. In the end, the poem that Darius recited was what won Nina’s heart.