What’s Not to Get About Love Jones?
I’ve often heard folks including my mother, hi mom, say they just don’t get Love Jones, and I’m here to stan. Now, when the film originally premiered in 1997, I didn’t have a clue. I was eleven years old. However, when revisiting as an adult, I got the hype. I can’t watch it without grinning, so I decided to share my side of the story.
First and foremost, Nia Long and Larenz Tate have great chemistry. You believe them. And sure, Larenz Tate had not yet peaked in his level of fine, at least for me, however, he was definitely a 90s vibe. And Ms. Long, well, she is gorgeous and seeing them side by side on screen is captivating.
It starts with the relentless pursuit of Nina (Nia Long) by Darius Lovehall (Larenz Tate.) Sure, in today’s time it may be even creepier that he showed up at her door, but for a film, can we just live in a fantasy land? It’s nice to know that someone won’t just give up at the first sign of adversity. Repectfully. I know we’ll yell, “boundaries!” But maybe boundaries have kept us from true and honest love. I’m joking here, but seriously in a film, it feels romantic.
Their first date was a whole vibe. Have you ever had a night that you didn’t want to end? Well, them heading over to the reggae spot was like “Aw yeah this is getting gudt!” The next day recount with each of their friends was just hilarious and you know that we’ve all been there.
Speaking of friends. Nina’s gave her horrible advice. And haven’t some of us been there too? She wanted Nina to play games instead of being honest with Darius about where she stood and why she was going to New York. Aren’t these the games we play?
The nostalgia of the 90s and the depiction of the creative scene brings you back to the time period with each watch. It’s a capsule of time and yet so timeless. Change out the rotary phones for cells and the cafe spot for a club or something and all scenarios are still applicable. As a creative, I loved seeing friends and art and photography.
Which brings me to the music. The music. The music is perfect. Starting with “Hopeless” by Dionne Farris. That sets us up for this hopeless love story that we’re about to jump into. And the rest is subtle but we have Maxwell in there who clearly creates music only for amazing sex scenes and a little Lauryn. Soundtracks of the 90s are undefeated my friend.
Ultimately, Love Jones is a story of love, friendship, and Blackness without it being overt. You could change out the race of the people and the story still stands. It’s in that golden area of Black film in the late 90s with The Wood and The Best Man where we got to tell stories about life but with Black people and tell them well. Without all the pain and depictions of our real life trauma. So many of us cape for more stories like that but in the meantime, bash the ones we had.
You can still hate it. That’s our right as consumers of art and media. It’s all subjective, right? So, it just may not be your flick. But the reason why some of us love it so is because it showcases that love is resilient AF. You may have been exhausted with the back and forth, but some of us were rooting for them to get it right. Haven’t we all gotten it wrong before? Maybe more than once?
The most unrealistic thing in the film was probably Savon (Isaiah Washington) having the gull to ask Darius how his book was going. Friends of writers know not to do that. El oh el.
But when I think of those that are confused about why we love Love Jones, to take a thought from Darius, maybe if you can’t get with Love Jones, you’ve exhausted the possibilities of what love stories can be.
