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Love & Basketball (2000)
In the running for best directorial debut of this century, Love & Basketball reinvents the sports-romance movie, stretching both the yearning and the gamesmanship across decades.
The first film by Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King, The Old Guard) employs hoops as the canvas on which Monica (Sanaa Lathan) and Quincy (Omar Epps) bond, battle, fall out and rekindle their relationship.
What begins as a backyard challenge between tomboy Monica and the neighbor kid Quincy turns into an hard-nosed yet openhearted examination of family pressures, inequity in college sports, and the rugged state of women’s pro basketball before the WNBA.
It’s well observed, fiery, sweet, melancholy, and one of the only movies to consider how athletes’ attachment to sports changes across the full arc of their lives.
Prince-Bythewood knows that game—she herself chose film school over college basketball. Clinton, Feb. 14.
Also Playing:
5th Avenue: Compensation (1999), Feb. 13–15. Academy: Punch-Drunk Love (2002), Harold and Maude (1971), The Ascent (1977), Feb. 11–12. Amélie (2001), Bride of Chucky (1998), Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Feb. 13–19. Cinema 21: Zola (1961), Feb. 14. Cinemagic: Stalker (1979), Feb. 15. Clinton: The Singing Ringing Tree (1957), Feb. 11. Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979), Feb. 12. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Feb. 14. Cult Classics: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986), Feb. 15. Hollywood: Paris Blues (1961), Feb. 11. Southland Tales (2006), Feb. 12. Baby Blood (1990), Feb. 13. Labyrinth (1986), Feb. 14. Harold and Maude (1971), Feb. 14. RRR (2022), Feb. 15. Mermaids (1990), Feb. 15. Beautiful Thing (1996), Feb. 16. Tomorrow: You’ve Got Mail (1998), Feb. 12. Hairspray (1988), Feb. 13. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), Feb. 14. In the Mood for Love (2000), Feb. 14. Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997), Feb. 15. When Harry Met Sally... (1989), Feb. 15.
