Love and Basketball vs. Love Jones: Which Film is Better

Often when posing the question of the best black romantic film, we often hear two answers: Love and Basketball and Love Jones. The latter is heard more commonly amongst older audiences whereas millenials often cite Love and Basketball as the best. Recently I found myself in a film debate about the two beloved films. Someone posed the question of which film is better: Love Jones or Love & Basketball. I quickly said Love & Basketball seeing it as a landslide. However, after much thought, this may not be the case. Perhaps, these films are considerably closer than I may have thought. Perhaps, Love Jones may even be the better film. Who knows? But why don't we tackle this from a few different perspectives and see if we can reach a conclusion.

Less Sophisticated Argument

Critical Reception

When faced with arguments like these, we are quick to refer to Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, and other film aggregators for a definitive answer. But in all respects, the film's critical reception is just merely one factor in this argument. As seen, Love & Basketball clearly tested better with critics and Love Jones just slightly tested better with audiences. But there's just one problem here. At this time, most film critics weren't African American. This is important as blacks were the target audiences for these films and are also the individuals who have asserted these films to the status of classics. So wouldn't we have to ask the target audience this question?

Money

This is only important if we were to address the film's impact on audiences. Very big openings can sometimes be indicative of a stronger affect on viewers. But is this a factor here?

Love Jones

Production Budget: $10 million

Lifetime Gross: $12.7 million

Opening Weekend: $3.9 million

(#6th that weekend. Screened in 820 theaters. 89th all time for Romantic Dramas)

Love & Basketball

Production Budget: $20 million

Lifetime Gross: $27.7 million

Opening Weekend: $8.1 million (#2 that weekend. Screened in 1,237 theaters. 44th all time for Sports Dramas)

From this schematic you can see that Love and Basketball was the more successful film, but there are several factors in play here. Firstly, it was screened in 34% more theaters than Love Jones. One could argue that the elevation in screenings for black films had taken place in the 3 years separating these films. Love & Basketball opened the same weekend as modest hits such as U-571 and Frequency. The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas also did decent numbers that weekend even if the films reception was poor. Love Jones opened against Jim Carrey hit Liar Liar as well as Jennifer Lopez film Selena. As seen, both films opened in very modest weekends and did decent numbers. The argument of box office success only matters when addressing the films effect on audiences, as said before, but here it isn't needed. Needless to say, we have to dig deeper to truly compare these two films.

More Sophisticated Argument

Thematic Value

Love Jones is slightly more stream of consciousness because of the presence of poetry as character development but is simultaneously very down-to-earth. This can't be said of many movies, especially in romance films. Poetry in the film serves as Darius's way of communicating himself as well as his emotions so that the film doesn't have to allot time for this, allowing the exposition of the film to flow flawlessly. His last name "lovehall" is even a symbol (albeit a pretty corny but effective one). They both act against what is seen as paramount for people dating by having sex early on but this shows that they are human. This attacks the pretenses of people and more specifically dating people. Her attachment to her past boyfriend is even a very human sentiment and it's not glossed over by the story. However, the presence of poetry and photography aren't as relatable for the unartistic audience. Both of their artistic passions cater to audiences who are very similar, which in truth aren't the majority of viewers. This doesn't mean that the average Joe can't enjoy this film. It just serves as a testament to why it has been asserted to the upper echelon of romantic films. The themes of the film were rare and unmatched within the romance genre at that point in film. For all intensive purposes, Love Jones is a film about 2 artist coming together. This is crucial as artist are some of the most vulnerable and sensitive people. This undertone is what allows the 2 characters to be so down-to-earth and so genuine in the film.

Love & Basketball from what you see from many people takes the cake because of the film's pathos. It remains very human in the delivery of the story and its characters, similar to Love Jones, but manipulates audiences more. Love and Basketball heavily depends on the misfortune of these 2 characters to almost show 2 lovers connected by hardship. This easily caters to the teenage demographic who feel nobody understands them as well as to the middle aged demographic of people with regret who feel they must atone. The very concept of the next door neighbor being your true love is also successfully manipulative logos for anyone as it forces them to question their surroundings and look at them more introspectively. Quite simply, Love and Basketball manipulates the emotions of the audience more. If the two leads weren't as likable and relatable this film would very much be another overly sappy romantic film. Film commonly has 2 jobs: to tell a story and to entertain. The presence of pathos and relatableness (made up word) with very effective characters, garners substantially more entertainment value in return. Needless to say, Love and Basketball is more of an entertainment spectacle than Love Jones. Love Jones is more of a art piece. Love Jones is more suited in a film study course whereas Love and Basketball is a film that anyone can sit down and enjoy at the snap of a finger.

Our Final Stance

Love Jones may very well be the better film. Perhaps we were so impressed with the emotional appeal of Love & Basketball that we overlooked other factors. Love Jones opens up audiences to a deeper analysis of people and relationships. One merely posesses more entertainment value than the other because of the presence of sports and growing up. The other is a very mature and realist insight into relationships. We'd strongly encourage everyone to see both films as they are very good films and to be open to what both films offer.