Love Jones (1997) on Netflix
In Chicago, poet Darius Lovehall meets photographer Nina Mosley at a spoken-word nightclub. Her recent engagement has left her hesitant, and neither will say what they want from each other.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.4/106,508 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes73%
Trailer
Plot summary
Darius Lovehall writes and recites poetry in Chicago, where he and photographer Nina Mosley meet at the Sanctuary, a club that programs jazz and spoken word. He performs a poem for her that night, and though she is drawn to him, she has just broken off an engagement to Marvin. Darius tracks down a record she wants and brings it to her apartment, and she agrees to see him. Their friends talk with them about love and sex, and the two become close without ever saying what they expect from each other. Nina's feelings about Marvin remain unsettled, and Darius will not admit how much she matters to him.
Cast
- Bernadette Speakesas Sheila Downes (as Bernadette L. Clarke)
- Cerall Duncanas Troy Garrison
- David Nisbetas Publisher
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Love Jones (1997)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Theodore Witcher developed the film from his interest in Chicago's underground poetry scene, and said in a 2017 oral history that a Chicago poetry club called Spices provided the setting he used as the background for a story about a relationship between twentysomethings.
- Two of the poems Nia Long's character Nina recites in the film were not written for the movie but were taken from poet Sonia Sanchez's book Like the Singing Coming Off the Drums: Love Poems.
- According to the Los Angeles Times, cold weather and persistent rain affected the production, and the rain was incorporated into the film's visual style and story instead of being worked around.
- A 2022 Criterion Collection essay credited the soundtrack's later popularity with reviving interest in the film after it underperformed in theaters on its original release.
- The film's producers set out to make a modern film about Black American life that deliberately avoided using violence and recreational drugs as plot elements.
