Brown Sugar

They're both approaching 30 and have found success in their different but equally demanding careers. He's a hip-hop producer/exec, and she's a magazine editor for XXL. Their relationship is defined by their mutual love of hip-hop, and for each other. His name is Dre (Taye Diggs) and her name Sidney (Sanaa Lathan).

It was three years ago that I fell in love with H.E.R. (a girl named Katie) and offered her "Brown Sugar" as a Valentine's Day gift and for her birthday (which was two weeks later). For most who fell in love with H.E.R., hip-hop started back in the '70s with DJ Kool Herc driving around the Bronx flatlands blaring the sound of a new era on his speakers. For me, I fell in love with H.E.R., hip-hop, the first time I heard "Walk This Way" by Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith, which was recorded in 1986.

Director Rick Famuyiwa has a passion for the music, and it seems to have culminated with "Brown Sugar," a film that some have called an urban version of "When Harry Met Sally" with a hip-hop beat. Sidney begins nearly every interview with the same question: How did you fall in love with hip-hop? For her, it was July 18, 1984, when she discovered a music genre with break dancing, DJing, emceeing, and graffiti tagging - the four elements of hip-hop.

It's the passion for the rhythm and the beat that brought Sidney and Dre together as children. Early in their time in college, they both considered giving it a go at romance, but Sidney decided it wouldn't be right. Her close friend Francine (Queen Latifah) warns she's turning into a Terry McMillian character. Now, as adults with careers and goals, their romance lives have taken radically different courses. Dre has become engaged to Reese (Nicole Ari Parker), who is beautiful and not some monster as movies like this would require. There is a sense of sincerity in a scene where she and Sidney confront one another about Dre.

Dre, meanwhile, who works for Millennium Records, has been assigned by his boss (Wendell Pierce), who wants MTV rotation, to produce a pair of jokesters named Ren and Ten and who call themselves the "Hip-Hop Dalmations" - "they represent that whole unity (that's 'u.n.i.t.y.') thing." Dre quits Millennium after this fiasco and decides to start his own label by first signing Chris Shawn (Mos Def), who he believes is a real artist. Dre and Sidney both realize they have to keep their feelings for one another on the down-low, especially since she is now involved with professional ballplayer Kelby Dawson (Boris Kodjoe).

"Brown Sugar" works as a pretty sweet romantic comedy that also doubles as a metaphor for the loss of dignity in hip-hop. Sid and Dre's being in love is paralleled against hip-hop's acceptance into the mainstream, and its loss of any meaningful qualities. They both feel the beat, and the passion since that day in July 1984 when they fell in love with the same thing, and its growth over the years. But despite the over-commercialization of my favorite music genre, one thing is certain:

I still love H.E.R.

7/10

Just watched this movie on DVD. And while I found the hip-hop commentary interesting, the love story seemed to close too to LOVE AND BASKETBALL for comfort. After the cool opening scene (featuring cameos by Doug E. Fresh, Big Daddy Kane and De La Soul) I thought maybe the hop-hip angle would dominate the love story, and for a while it seemed like it would, but the opposite occured. The "friend-becoming-lovers" angles has been done better in other movies (LOVE AND BASKETBALL, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY.., etc.) and it's getting old. Don't get me wrong, the movie's not a total waste. The two leads are great, the supporting cast is good too. So if you don't mind a typical love story you just might want rent this one. Not great, but not bad as the other reviewers states.

My summary of the movie is my opinion. I love this movie because I feel that Sidney Shaw is using a metaphor throughout the whole movie. She is comparing Hip Hop to her best friend Dre, both of which are alike. I find this movie amazing because of all the metaphors found within the movie, that only one can find if they look closely.

For example, when Sidney and Dre are in the store looking at something to buy for her new place, they come across a "vase" and the woman at the store explains to them that many couples enjoy that piece. Later within the movie, you see that that vase is in Sidney's house.

I also enjoy this movie because everything that is said, and everything that is done within the movie has a meaning behind it. Foreshadowing is found everywhere, you just have to look closely enough for it. Nothing in this movie is done without a reason.

Every line said within the movie is said beautifully and has significance behind it. My favourite line within the movie, that I've carried with me ever since I heard it is, "So what is the difference between rap and hip-hop? It's simple. It's like the difference between saying you love somebody and being IN love with somebody. Rap is just a word." When I heard that line, I fell in love with this movie and I had to watch it over again, and I have watched it many times. Each time I find more meanings that I missed the first time. What I like even more about this movie is that they use actual artists in the movie that state their opinion on "When they first fell in love with Hip Hop." "Brown Sugar" spoke to me. It's real. Nothing in it is fake like in the majority of movie's these days which is why I think I enjoy it so much. I recommend this movie to anyone who has a passion about something or to anyone who looks for significant meanings behind anything.

I believe Brown Sugar is a movie that should and possibly will always be remembered. I like the movie since it displays the true meaning of hip-hop. Not only that but it shows how true friends may end up getting together. My comment may not sound clear since my mind is all jungled up. Sanaa Lathan and Taye Diggs played excellent roles in the movie along with Queen Latifah, Nicole Ari Parker, Boris Kodjoe, and Mos Def. Another good thing about the movie promotes the Bronx!! Holla!!!!!! That's for the haters who stay hatin' on the BX!

Dre and Sidney have grown up friends and matured through their shared love of hip hop music. Now in their late twenties, he is an executive of Millennium Records while she is the editor of XXL. Dre's marriage sparks deep feelings within Sidney, which she battles to control. However changes in both their lives in terms of love and the direction of their relationship with hip hop, brings about choices they both must make.

Before this film had finished production I had spotted on imdb that artists such as Common, Talib Kweli and Mos Def were in this movie and I was looking forward to see it. I saw it today as my wife is a fan of Diggs and must say that I was left feeling slightly underwhelmed. As a romantic comedy it is surprisingly light on both romance and comedy. The tangled web of `do they love each other, don't they love each other' loses steam long before it reaches the end of the film and the prominence of cheating in the story is a turn off. It still sort of works but not as well or as compelling as in other films – the fact that both of the lovers get involved in marriage caused me to be less supportive of them becoming a couple (which is important for a rom-com to get right).

In terms of laughs the film is pretty thin and it only got a few laughs out of me. It is all reasonably amiable but this doesn't make it funny. The best laughs came from minor support characters rather than the main story, which is far too busy talking about hip hop or looking sad over unfulfilled love.

In terms of hip hop, I was expectant after the film opened with talking heads from many famous artists, including several whom I'll buy anything they release. However after this opening the music is only really referred to in a dull voice over by Lathan. The film does make good swipes at modern hip hop (particularly funny and barbed is The Hip Hop Dalmatians) but it is nowhere near at transferring the effect of the music as, say, 8 Mile or Slam were. The soundtrack is really lacking in strong joints and hip hop is only given the stage briefly when Mos Def performs at a show. Strange then that this film claims to be about hip hop as much as it is about romance.

The cast are pretty good even though the material is not quite as good. Diggs is not given good dialogue and his constant hip hop talk doesn't always sound natural when he says it. Lathan is a lot more comfortable and is better, although again, she is held back by a depressingly over-sentimental voice over. The two together do have chemistry and it is a shame that the plot wasn't set up better to use this. Mos Def is the star of this film and it is a shame that he is only given a little screen time. He has the funniest scenes and when he is talking to Kelby about being a rap coach and, later, romancing Francine, he shows real astute comic touches in his performance. Likewise Latifah is good and about a million times better than she was in the woeful Brining Down The house – here the support role suits her.

Overall I felt that his film didn't really succeed at anything it tried but was still watchable and quite enjoyable nonetheless. The romance was too confused by marriages etc to really work well and to get the audience behind it and the comedy never really arrived apart from a perfect performance by Mos Def. The whole hip hop thing meanwhile, could be viewed as under-served or simply a marketing gimmick depending on how cynical you are.