Whatever happened to the movies about educated Black people the every day person could enjoy? Really, can you think of one movie since Brown Sugar (2002) tha was made around a primarily all-black cast that was truly about something more than a hustled flow or a ghetto charter plane? Not to say that those movies couldn't be worth the $8 of admission. But I need something that's going to perplex the mind like Wood talking about "If God were a woman ..." or Dre lifting a champagne glass talking about his best friend being the "perfect verse over a tight beat" on New Year's Eve.
It makes you wonder if we have just run out of talented African-American-geared scripts or if your commonplace black movie is watered-down to the Hustle & Flow "Whoop That Trick" mentality? Let's just hope that this isn't what we're resigned to watching.
Really, though, we need a resolution quickfast. I'm tired of swiping the d-card for some fruity chick flick like Just Like Heaven, a good movie, that might be 20 times more appealing if Reese Witherspoon's role was modeled after a black female played by ghostly Nia Long and the dude's role (I can't remember his name ... I just know he was in 13 Going on 30) were played by Morris Chestnut acting as flustered as he was about the other sex in Breakin All the Rules. It would get them away from corny bit roles in bad, bad movies ... but that would be too much to ask for.
If I were to write a movie script, what would I call it? Sole Searchin - a movie sampling the lives of four young black people (two males and two females) struggling to find their identities in a white professional world, in their love lives and spiritually. Ha, an auto-biopic of me and my friends.
Anyway, here are my top five fav black movies of the last 15 years with a positive professional spin to them.
- Love Jones (1997) - If Darius Lovehall's A Blues for Nina didn't pull you in, its unlikely that you have any soul ... Bill Bellamy, Lisa Nicole Carson (where is she?) and Isaiah Washington were the start of an awesome supporting cast. Quotable:"Because rather than deal with the fallacy of this dry-ass reality, I'd rather dance and romance your sweet ass in a wet dream."
- Boomerang (1992) - Eddie at his best on the screen, and Halle's coming out party. Quotable: "You gotta coordinate..."
- Brown Sugar (2002) - I wonder how weird it was for Boris to watch Taye Diggs lock lips with his wife. Quotable: "I need to celebrate. I want to order the most expensive bottle of champagne in this place. I need to celebrate ... (dinging the glass with a fork) my divorce!"
- The Best Man (1999) - My best man would have been thrown over the edge of the roof if something like that went down. Quotable: "You F$%k#d Mia?!"
- Love & Basketball (2000) - Who said all b-ballers were dumb? Quincy McCall was a great example of what happens to 65 percent ( a random percentage) of NBA Draft picks, i.e. Jay Williams (of Duke). Quotable: "Who you going to the dance with anyway, Spalding?"
Missed the Bus: Coming to America, Drumline, The Brothers, Two Can Play That Game, Deliver Us From Eva and Soul Food.
Note: This doesn't mean these movies weren't as good as the five listed. It's just those five movies portrayed blacks in a Cosbyish light, to a degree.
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