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Love & Basketball

Love & Basketball

Comedy · Drama · Romance · 2000

Monica Wright and Quincy McCall grew up in the same neighborhood and have known each other since childhood. As they grow into adulthood, they fall in love, but they also share another all-consuming passion: basketball. As Quincy and Monica struggle to make their relationship work, they follow separate career paths though high school and college basketball and, they hope, into stardom in big-league professional ball.

Movie details

Love & Basketball

“All's fair in love and basketball.”

2000 Comedy · Drama · Romance 2h 5m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

7.3 / 10

Community rating

Monica Wright and Quincy McCall grew up in the same neighborhood and have known each other since childhood. As they grow into adulthood, they fall in love, but they also share another all-consuming passion: basketball. As Quincy and Monica struggle to make their relationship work, they follow separate career paths though high school and college basketball and, they hope, into stardom in big-league professional ball.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Love & Basketball?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Gina Prince-Bythewood

Written by

Gina Prince-Bythewood

Sanaa Lathan

Sanaa Lathan

Monica Wright

Omar Epps

Omar Epps

Quincy McCall

Chris Warren

Chris Warren

Kelvin

Kyla Pratt

Kyla Pratt

Young Monica

Alfre Woodard

Alfre Woodard

Camille Wright

Regina Hall

Regina Hall

Lena Wright

Glenndon Chatman

Glenndon Chatman

Young Quincy

Court is in session

Put Love & Basketball on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.