Love Jones

Love Jones (1997) — watch online on iFILM. Director Theodore Witcher shot this debut feature entirely in Chicago's spoken-word and jazz scene, casting Larenz Tate as Darius Lovehall, a young poet, and Nia Long as Nina Moseley, a photographer fresh off a long-term break-up. They meet at a live performance night; Darius improvises a poem for her on the spot and calls it a poem, not a pick-up line.

Neither of them will admit what it actually is. The film runs on that tension and on sharp conversations among their friend group — Isaiah Washington, Bill Bellamy, Lisa Nicole Carson — all playing twenty-somethings who discuss love with more fluency than they can actually handle it. The neo-soul soundtrack, heavy on live jazz, has aged well. What makes Love Jones a recurring watch is that it gives its characters real intelligence and then watches them use it to get in their own way. Stream Love Jones (1997) online on iFILM.