It Ain't No Love Thing

How does something become a cult classic or just a standalone classic? I heard some time ago that we romanticize the past too much the further we get from it. Was that night really that good, or were you just feeling that good? Love Jones was released on March 14, 1997. Sometimes it's not about how you start, but how you finish. We should not get caught up in numbers; let's get swept away in impact! How does it feel now? The sentiment regarding this one is universal; we return to it again and again—to remind us of how it was and who we were.

Perhaps it's a nostalgia for lost or even unrequited love. But it continues to show us something about our world year after year that compels our return. Love Jones is the top movie I wish I had made. Why is that, you ask? It centers around the universally top-two topic holder: what we all crave, especially the ones who claim they don't care for it—love. Love! Love! For the Black community, it's one of the greatest representations of Black Love. Yet, it doesn't show a sugar-coated version of reality; you see the foibles repeatedly.

Love, like life, isn't a straight line; oftentimes, it's an inebriated, zigzag crawl to the finish line. No one loves unscathed. Each time I watch it now, I see the missteps from each character, especially Darius and Nina, differently. I find myself yelling out directions to avoid what I know is coming, perhaps trying to do that for my own past. My other favorite couple besides Nina & Darius is Savon & Troy. Isaiah Washington's performance is top-level and fully on display here. He is part of so many of my favorite scenes; one of them being when Troy comes back home with their son, he greets them, they go inside, and he looks up at the sky—that quick talk with God was so brief, yet he conveys so much.

In conclusion, this movie represents so many places that people of color used to inhabit throughout this nation. This movie serves as a relic itself, showcasing many of those spaces—the spaces to congregate, feel free, feel alive, and feel like art. As we lose more and more of the human touch, we will return to Love Jones again and again to remind us that "this, right here, is all that matters right now." Cue Ms. Hill & D'Angelo. Goodnight, Black people.