Very rarely am I enamored with a movie as much as I have been with Sylvie's Love. After all, my all-time favorite movie was released in 1989, three years after I was born. So it's pretty fair to say that I don't give up that spot to movies easily. But ladies, Sylvie's Love, was everything--everything I didn't know I needed in a rom com, complete with the blackness that I always look for, easily catapulting itself into one of my all-time favorites. #comethruAmazon
The movie stars Tessa Thompson (Sylvie) and Nnamdi Asomugha (Robert), who embark on a summer romance in the 1950's. They meet at Sylvie's father's record store, while he's a saxophonist and she has television production aspirations. After Robert accepts a gig in Paris, the two lose contact and spend the rest of the movie trying to gain back the feeling of what they had way back when.
Will they end up together? We never know, but we are certainly losing edges as we wait to see.
What was most beautiful about the movie, is it amplifies black love in eras where we are only told that our history is based on inequality, or fighting for civil rights, or rebuilding from what was taken from us in the past. But even slaves had love stories, or Malcolm X was more than just a revolutionary--he was a husband and father too.
Both director, Eugene Ashe, and Thompson profoundly addressed this in Essence, when they said:
"Even Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. still had a bunch of babies and fell in love. It's really important to show that we existed in the past [beyond] the 'struggle culture'—that Black folks were still falling in love. I think not showing that is a way of erasing us."
Tessa added:
"At a time when we're talking about the value and dignity of Black life…it's really great to have a [love] story that offers some escapism for audiences, and that feels sweeping and beautiful and hopeful about love. We really need those kinds of narratives."
And it turns out that most that have watched, feel the same way:
Some took note of their dynamic:
Others discussed that they've watched it multiple times:
Many were here for the writing AND acting:
Others loved the physical:
Many viewers were also thankful for the movie's timing:
And they also loved the acting from top to bottom:
Whatever your thoughts, it's pretty clear that Sylvie's Love will be a timeless classic in the culture for years to come.
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Have you watched yet?
Feature image via Sylvie's Love