Love and Basketball-Music Edition (2000)

Variety
"...Effortlessly erotic in a way that few films are..." 2/7-13/2000 p.54

Entertainment Weekly
"...Breaks away from other sports-themed dramas, thanks to the clarity and dash of Prince-Bythewood's agile directorial style and the exciting originality of the subject..." -- Rating: A- 05/28/2000 p.76

Total Film
"...LOVE & BASKETBALL is a touching romance, rich in humour and finely acted..." -- 4 out of 5 stars 08/01/2000 p.89

Los Angeles Times
"...Charming....This is an extremely well-acted movie. Lathan in particular is a marvel..." 04/21/2000 p.F10

Uncut
"This is a neat, sweet and untypical sports-themed romance..." 08/01/2000 p.118

ReelViews 8 of 10
Love & Basketball is, as one can infer from the title, about love and basketball...In the final analysis, the feature debut of writer/director Gina Prince-Bythewood (backed by producer Spike Lee) succeeds better as a sports movie than as a romance. While the sports cliches are kept to a minimum in favor of a Hoop Dreams-type view of basketball, the love story follows a familiar trajectory...Even though every major cast member of Love & Basketball is black, the film is essentially color-blind. However, while race is a non-issue, gender is not. The film illustrates, among other things, the vast gulf of inequality that exists between male and female athletes. By dramatizing Monica and Quincy's lives in parallel, Pince-Bythewood is able to explore the inequities. Despite having the same drive, ambition, and passion, they cannot reach the same peak, nor are the plateaus along the way on the same level. For example, Monica's high school games are played in front of a sparse crowd while Quincy's take place in a packed gymnasium. Attention to details like this place Love & Basketball a step or two ahead of the competition. Although not a slam-dunk, it's a satisfying lay-up. - James Berardinelli
 
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
"Love & Basketball" is about how you can either be in love or play basketball, but it's tricky to do both at the same time. It may be unique among sports movies in that it does not end with the Big Game. Instead, it's a thoughtful and touching story about two affluent black kids, a boy and a girl, who grow up loving each other, and the game...Omar Epps is an accomplished actor, effective here if a little too old (27) to be playing a high-schooler. Sanaa Lathan is the discovery. This is her sixth movie (she was in the lookalike films "The Wood" and "The Best Man") and her chance to flower, and she does, with a combination of tomboy stubbornness and womanly pride. She has some wonderful scenes with her mother (Alfre Woodard), a housewife who defends her choices in life against her daughter's half-formed feminist notions...Epps has effective scenes, too, with his parents. His dad retires from pro ball and is socked with a paternity suit, and Quincy has to re-evaluate how he feels about both parents in a couple of strong truth-telling scenes...The movie is not as taut as it could have been, but I prefer its emotional perception to the pumped-up sports cliches I was sort of expecting. Like Robert Towne's "Personal Best," it's about the pressures of being a star athlete--the whole life, not the game highlights. - Roger Ebert