10 Best Black Love Films of All Time

Love and Basketball The 2000 cult classic stars Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan as they portray the love story between Quincy McCall (Epps) and Monica Wright (Lathan), who go from next-door neighbors, to lovers, to rivals and back again. The film was produced by 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks and was the directing debut of screenwriter Gina Prince-Bythewood. The Best Man The Best Man premiered in 1999 and had an all-star cast of Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut and Harold Perrineau. The movie centers on a group of college friends who are reuniting for a wedding amid the release of best man Harper Stewart's (Diggs) tell-all book "Unfinished Business" that exposes secrets about each of his friends. A sequel, The Best Man Holiday, was released in 2013, and The Best Man Wedding is reportedly in the works. Love Jones Larenz Tate and Nia Long star in the 1997 love story between Darius Lovehall (Tate) and Nina Mosley (Long). The story follows the blossoming romance between the two after they have sex on the first date and try to navigate a relationship. Jason's Lyric Released in 1994, Jason's Lyric is the story of a young man who must confront his fears of intimacy and love. Jason, played by Allen Payne, is a sales clerk at a TV store who falls in love with Lyric, played by Jada Pinkett-Smith. The two grow in love and happiness until Jason's past and family come to tear them apart. Brown Sugar The 2002 film brought favorites Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan back together in cinematic ecstasy. Written by Michael Elliott and Rick Famuyiwa and directed by Famuyiwa, the film is a story of a lifelong friends, hip-hop record executive Andre and magazine editor in chief Sidney, who bonded over the moment they both discovered hip-hop on a New York street corner as children. The movie follows the two as they work to maintain careers, love and friendship. Waiting to Exhale Though not a traditional love story, the 1995 film was an instant classic among Black women. With a heavy-hitting cast of Whitney Houston, Lela Rochon, Loretta Devine and Angela Bassett, the movie deals with relationships with men and how friendship can help heal wounds. . How Stella Got Her Groove Back In 1998, Stella got her groove back, and Black women everywhere rejoiced. In the movie, Stella, played by Angela Bassett flies off to Jamaica for a girls getaway weekend only to meet the gorgeous Winston (Taye Diggs), a Jamaican man who is 20 years her junior. The two embark on a whirlwind romance filled with lust, love and heartache. Just Wright Rapper Common and Queen Latifah were an unlikely pair when they came together in 2010 for Just Wright. In the film, physical therapist Leslie Wright (Latifah) lands a job working with basketball player Scott McKnight (Common). After a basketball injury forces Wright to nurse McKnight back to health, the two fall in love and must deal with the basketball player's impending marriage to Leslie's friend Morgan, played by Paula Patton. The Inkwell Released in 1994, the movie opens as Drew (Larenz Tate) is still recovering from the trauma of accidentally burning his own house down. His parents, Kenny (Joe Morton) and Brenda (Suzzanne Douglas), take him to Martha's Vineyard where he discovers an upper-class Black community that centers on parties held at a beach called the Inkwell. While there, he falls in love with two girls, Lauren (Jada Pinkett-Smith) and Heather (Adrienne-Joi Johnson). The Wood The 1999 film follows three old friends -- Mike (Omar Epps), Roland (Taye Diggs) and Slim (Richard T. Jones) -- on the day of Roland's wedding as they share stories of their childhood in Inglewood, California. They swap stories of love and loss and the awkwardness of adolescence.

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