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It's February, which means that it's Black History Month, and that means the return of the 2002 classic "Brown Sugar". I first saw this movie (or at least a sizeable portion of this movie) on Showtime- I was flipping stations and saw Taye Diggs and stopped long enough to be intrigued and follow it to the end.
The movie focuses on a music reporter, Syd Shaw, who covers the hip-hop scene and her best friend, Dre, a music producer. The two have been friends since they were kids and know every single thing about each other, much to the dismay of their romantic partners. What follows is a friends-to-lovers romance with the backdrop of the hip-hop scene and all of the classic roadblocks and misunderstandings that you'd expect.
The cast of this movie is phenomenal- both Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan excel as the leads, and Nicole-Ari Parker and Boris Kodjoe as the unfortunate love interests as well as Queen Latifah and Mos Def in comedic roles provide fine support.
Two scenes stand out in my mind- both involving Nicole-Ari Parker's Reese. In the first, Reese and Syd meet up in a boxing class at the local gym and hash out all of their issues while throwing punches. And the second is the "Richard Lawson" scene (I'll save the spoilers, but if you search Richard Lawson Brown Sugar on YouTube, you'll find it). Those are just the first two and when I start thinking about the movie, different parts keep coming to me and if I recap them all, you might as well just have watched.
One thing that I didn't really care for is the addition of Ren and Ten, a hip-hop act, that basically denotes the corporatization of industry, and is a catalyst for Dre at a certain point in the film. I felt like they used them a bit much and the comic effect that they were supposed to have fell a bit flat. They had a purpose, but it just dragged on a little too much for my tastes.
If you're looking for a light, funny, romantic comedy, you may want to check it out this month before they stick it back into hibernation for another year.
The movie focuses on a music reporter, Syd Shaw, who covers the hip-hop scene and her best friend, Dre, a music producer. The two have been friends since they were kids and know every single thing about each other, much to the dismay of their romantic partners. What follows is a friends-to-lovers romance with the backdrop of the hip-hop scene and all of the classic roadblocks and misunderstandings that you'd expect.
The cast of this movie is phenomenal- both Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan excel as the leads, and Nicole-Ari Parker and Boris Kodjoe as the unfortunate love interests as well as Queen Latifah and Mos Def in comedic roles provide fine support.
Two scenes stand out in my mind- both involving Nicole-Ari Parker's Reese. In the first, Reese and Syd meet up in a boxing class at the local gym and hash out all of their issues while throwing punches. And the second is the "Richard Lawson" scene (I'll save the spoilers, but if you search Richard Lawson Brown Sugar on YouTube, you'll find it). Those are just the first two and when I start thinking about the movie, different parts keep coming to me and if I recap them all, you might as well just have watched.
One thing that I didn't really care for is the addition of Ren and Ten, a hip-hop act, that basically denotes the corporatization of industry, and is a catalyst for Dre at a certain point in the film. I felt like they used them a bit much and the comic effect that they were supposed to have fell a bit flat. They had a purpose, but it just dragged on a little too much for my tastes.
If you're looking for a light, funny, romantic comedy, you may want to check it out this month before they stick it back into hibernation for another year.
