Greatest Black Comedy Movies Of All Time – From Nappily Ever After to Waiting to Exhale, these are the 14 best Black romantic comedies. Picture of Zee Ngema
When we think about romantic comedies, we can’t help but picture white women like Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, Meg Ryan and Reese Witherspoon in love with Hugh Grant or Mark Ruffalo. There’s a precision to her formula, rationing the humor just enough to cut through her emotional seriousness. But romantic comedy movies have more to offer than just pristine white clutches and 90s pop needle drops.
Greatest Black Comedy Movies Of All Time
The Black Romcom is something very different, much looser in its structure and often willing to be frank about sex. The raunchiness is tempered by the consistent presence of Black elders, quite honest in their commentary on love and marriage. There is something inherently communal about Black romcom movies, which make a point to always show us romance laced with cultural connotations that emphasize the diversity within the Black community itself.
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After some time out of the spotlight, Sanaa Lathan is back to doing what she does best: playing a career woman who seems to have it all—except romance. This time her paramour is a lovely barber (Lyriq Bent) who meets her after a mishap with her hair. Their love story runs parallel to another, more personal journey that highlights the complexity of a Black woman’s relationship with her hair. Based on the novel by Trisha R. Thomas, Nappily Ever After is the story of a woman who is not only in love with a new man, but with her natural self.
Two years before her underrated romantic drama The Photograph, up-and-coming director Stella Meghie made a little romcom called The Weekend. In it, Sasheer Zamata plays Zadie, a comedian who spent an awkward weekend with her ex (Tone Bell) and his new girlfriend (DeWanda Wise). Fortunately for her, a handsome stranger (Y’lan Noel) appears, who gives Zadie a chance to start something new. With its low-key, observational humor and naturalistic performances, it’s a little indie flick that grows on you.
Before polyamory was considered common in modern dating, there was She’s Gotta Have It, the story of a woman who tries to date three men at once. From a straight male perspective, Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns) is a bit of an enigma. Her suitors in the film (played by Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell, and director Spike Lee) are much more fleshed out, and provide most of the comedy. It is a flawed film; one that is not as fun as it should be. But, like Boomerang, She’s Gotta Have It is a film that touches on the way Black men can fear the sexual independence of Black women. Maybe that’s an accident – but it’s worth considering all the same.
This time, romantic comedy queen Sanaa Lathan is a rich career woman who has everything but Mr. Right. When she finally meets him, there’s a slight hitch—he’s white. Simon Baker plays the landscaper dreamboat, who awakens her both emotionally and sexually, and shows her a different path to take in her life. But can she settle down with a man who is not only white but doesn’t line up with her upwardly mobile family and friends? Throw in a little Blair Underwood, and something new becomes a steamy love triangle about race, class, and your authentic self.
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Queen Latifah dominated the screen in the ’90s and ’00s with a comedic and dramatic presence that was as sexy as it was brutal. But in Just Wright , she plays the demure Leslie Wright, pining over a shallow basketball player (Common) who hasn’t yet realized how amazing she is. But the director makes Latifah look like the goddess she is in every shot. In a cinematic landscape that so often ignores plus-sized bodies, there is something especially beautiful about a film that knows its plus-sized heroine is the prize – even if she doesn’t know it herself yet.
This darkly funny adaptation of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew serves as the perfect showcase for Gabrielle Union’s brutal charm. No one plays “the bitch” quite like Union, with her costar LL Cool J assuming the role of “smooth operator” that he has perfected throughout his career. Although a little dated, a classic battle of the sexes is a perfect setup for a story about two people who are resistant to love, despite how much they both need it. Much like Two Can Play That Game before it, Deliver Us From Eva is a romantic comedy that thrives on chemistry and star power.
It’s like Rick Famuyiwa saw Love & Basketball and decided to make a romcom version with hip-hop at the center. Sanaa Lathan once again plays a woman who is passionate about her work and the man who was there when her passion began. But instead of Omar Epps, this time we have the ever-affable Taye Diggs as the archetypal nice boy who can’t see what’s right in front of him. With a great soundtrack and delightful comic relief from Queen Latifah and Yasiin Bey, Brown Sugar is as sweet as the title suggests. Sure, it’s even a little corny at times, but Lathan and Diggs know how to make it work.
Two Can Play That Game is a romantic comedy in its purest form. Viveca A. Fox stars as a beautiful, intelligent career woman who has problems with her husband (Morris Chestnut). Speaking directly to the camera, Fox lays out the rules for how to deal with a lover while maintaining control of the situation. But, like any plan, things don’t go exactly the way she wants them to. Bolstered by a hilarious cast that includes Mo’Nique, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Tamala Jones, Gabrielle Union, and even Bobby Brown, Two Can Play That Game is heavy on the jokes with a little romance on top.
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Perhaps less well known than the other films on this list, Claudine is a blueprint for images of working-class black romance. Diahann Carroll plays a struggling single mother who falls for a charismatic garbage man played by James Earl Jones. At a time when blaxploitation was the primary way to see black faces on screen, director John Berry showed audiences a grounded depiction of black life through naturalistic performances and blue-collar humor. Playing against type, Carroll is gorgeous and exhausted as the titular heroine, while Jones plays her love interest Rupert as a timid but charming teddy bear.
In recent years, this film has finally received the attention it deserves. The Watermelon Woman is as innovative now as it was then, and places a black lesbian (director and writer Cheryl Dunye) at the center of a romantic film that also reckons with racism in cinema history. Seems like a lot, but Dunye pulls it all together, combining media commentary with the familiar trappings of falling in love. Like many of the films on this list, The Watermelon Woman is as much about self-discovery as it is about love, race and the way history speaks to us.
Made at a time when the high-concept romcom was all the rage, Coming to America was still surprisingly ambitious: an African prince (Eddie Murphy) takes a trip to America and falls in love with a regular American girl named Lisa (Shari Headley), much to the dismay of his parents (James Earl Jones, Madge Sinclair), handler (Arsenio Hall), and his romantic rival (Eriq La Salle). What follows is a classic tale of opposites attracting, filled to the brim with quirky side characters, huge setpieces, and old-fashioned family drama. Murphy is the star of the show here, playing multiple characters and oozing charisma with every second.
Although it is mainly discussed as a drama, Waiting to Exhale has some of the best comedic moments in Black cinema history. Stars Angela Bassett, Whitney Houston, Lela Rochon, and Loretta Devine navigate romance, family and friendship with a wariness every Black woman in the world can recognize. Based on the Terry McMillan novel of the same name, Waiting to Exhale is about a group of women trying to find and keep a good man. The problem is, there aren’t many out there. The expansive male cast—including Michael Beach, Dennis Haysbert, Leon Robinson, and Mykelti Williamson—portrays every flavor of no-shit man you can think of, strangely confident and delusional. But through the seemingly endless parade of clowns, these beautiful women keep moving forward.
Best Black Comedy Movies Of All Time
Boomerang is one of the most underrated romantic comedies of all time, with Eddie Murphy giving one of his best (and surprisingly most grounded) performances as a playboy in for a rude awakening. Murphy plays Marcus Graham, a smooth-talking advertising executive with a tempting bachelor pad and shallow ideas about women. Boomerang itself seems to challenge Graham with its diverse female cast, who are the real stars of the film: Robin Givens, Halle Berry, Eartha Kitt, and the gorgeous, enveloping Grace Jones. Each of them pushes Graham out of his comfort zone and forces him to rethink his point of view. Funny, sexy and really engaging,
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