{"id":12158,"date":"2021-06-27T10:31:43","date_gmt":"2021-06-27T14:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itwaslikemagic.com\/?p=12158"},"modified":"2026-04-19T19:00:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T23:00:38","slug":"brown-sugar-2002","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/brown-sugar-2002\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Brown Sugar&#8217; (2002) Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sidney and Dre are childhood friends who bonded over their mutual love of hip-hop. As adults, Dre works for a mainstream record company, and Sidney has just become the editor-in-chief of the hip-hop magazine XXL. They\u2019re still as close as ever, but things get a bit complicated when Dre proposes to his girlfriend, Reese, and unresolved feelings between him and Sidney surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I absolutely adore <strong>Sanaa Lathan<\/strong>, and I really do enjoy watching <strong>Taye Diggs<\/strong> as well. Push them together, and I am in rom-com heaven. I already loved them in <a href=\"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/the-best-man-1999-review\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"137\"><em>The Best Man<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/the-best-man-holiday-2013\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"829\"><em>The Best Man Holiday<\/em><\/a>, so it was a no-brainer to watch Brown Sugar. Or rewatch it! I hadn&#8217;t seen this movie in a long time, but I remember loving it, and I still do. Lathan and Diggs have such amazing chemistry together, and that chemistry holds up in <em>Brown Sugar<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There&#8217;s only a brief scene of Dre and Sidney as kids before transitioning to the &#8220;present,&#8221; where they&#8217;re both adults on their own successful career paths, but we don&#8217;t need a bunch of exposition about their friendship over the years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because of Diggs and Lathan&#8217;s chemistry, we fully accept that they&#8217;re best friends. Their interactions, attraction, and spats feel wonderfully natural. Lathan also has excellent chemistry with <strong>Queen Latifah<\/strong>, who plays her cousin, Francine, and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Yasiin_Bey\">Mos Def<\/a><\/strong> provides much of the comedic relief as &#8220;Cav&#8221; an amateur rapper Dre wants to sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hip-hop is what ties Dre and Sidney together, and the movie explores how hip-hop culture influences their relationship. Sidney is writing a book about it. Dre works as a music executive at a large label and constantly struggles to sustain his career without compromising what he considers authentic hip-hop. Even as he&#8217;s preparing to marry the wrong woman, he&#8217;s facing a crisis of conscience when his label signs The Hip-Hop Dalmatians, a rap duo who scream <em>commercial success<\/em> but suffer from a complete lack of talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dre seems to be spiraling, while Sidney is growing more confident in her job and love life. One thing I&#8217;ve always loved about this movie is that Sidney and Dre both have to make mistakes before they find their way to each other. Throughout the film, hip-hop serves as a metaphor for Dre and Sidney&#8217;s feelings for each other, and I love how it keeps pushing them together despite the wrong turns and doubts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Brown Sugar<\/em> is a great movie to watch if you want a sense of realism in your rom-com. It has some great performances and a fantastic soundtrack. Life is messy, and <em>Brown Sugar<\/em> doesn&#8217;t back down from that just because it&#8217;s a romantic comedy. I would definitely recommend it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>You are the perfect verse over a tight beat.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Watched: <\/strong>06\/12\/2021<br><strong>Notable Song:<\/strong> Brown Sugar by Mos Def<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div><div id=\"pb-star-rating-d695010b6dd64f9ead56590e134ba363\" class=\"wp-block-ud-blocks-star-rating\" style=\"--udpb-sr-align:center;--udpb-sr-icon-color:#ffb900;--udpb-sr-icon-size:18px;--udpb-sr-icon-sizeTablet:17px;--udpb-sr-icon-sizeMobile:16px;--udpb-sr-title-color:#000;--udpb-sr-title-size:18px;--udpb-sr-title-size-tablet:17px;--udpb-sr-title-size-mobile:16px\"><div class=\"pb-star-rating-wrapper\"><div class=\"pb-star-rating--title\"><strong>Rating:<\/strong><\/div><div class=\"pb-star-rating--icon\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"fas\" data-icon=\"star\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-star fa-w-18 \" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 576 512\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M259.3 17.8L194 150.2 47.9 171.5c-26.2 3.8-36.7 36.1-17.7 54.6l105.7 103-25 145.5c-4.5 26.3 23.2 46 46.4 33.7L288 439.6l130.7 68.7c23.2 12.2 50.9-7.4 46.4-33.7l-25-145.5 105.7-103c19-18.5 8.5-50.8-17.7-54.6L382 150.2 316.7 17.8c-11.7-23.6-45.6-23.9-57.4 0z\"><\/path><\/svg><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"fas\" data-icon=\"star\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-star fa-w-18 \" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 576 512\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M259.3 17.8L194 150.2 47.9 171.5c-26.2 3.8-36.7 36.1-17.7 54.6l105.7 103-25 145.5c-4.5 26.3 23.2 46 46.4 33.7L288 439.6l130.7 68.7c23.2 12.2 50.9-7.4 46.4-33.7l-25-145.5 105.7-103c19-18.5 8.5-50.8-17.7-54.6L382 150.2 316.7 17.8c-11.7-23.6-45.6-23.9-57.4 0z\"><\/path><\/svg><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"fas\" data-icon=\"star\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-star fa-w-18 \" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 576 512\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M259.3 17.8L194 150.2 47.9 171.5c-26.2 3.8-36.7 36.1-17.7 54.6l105.7 103-25 145.5c-4.5 26.3 23.2 46 46.4 33.7L288 439.6l130.7 68.7c23.2 12.2 50.9-7.4 46.4-33.7l-25-145.5 105.7-103c19-18.5 8.5-50.8-17.7-54.6L382 150.2 316.7 17.8c-11.7-23.6-45.6-23.9-57.4 0z\"><\/path><\/svg><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"fas\" data-icon=\"star\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-star fa-w-18 \" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 576 512\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M259.3 17.8L194 150.2 47.9 171.5c-26.2 3.8-36.7 36.1-17.7 54.6l105.7 103-25 145.5c-4.5 26.3 23.2 46 46.4 33.7L288 439.6l130.7 68.7c23.2 12.2 50.9-7.4 46.4-33.7l-25-145.5 105.7-103c19-18.5 8.5-50.8-17.7-54.6L382 150.2 316.7 17.8c-11.7-23.6-45.6-23.9-57.4 0z\"><\/path><\/svg><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"star\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-star fa-w-18 \" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 576 512\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M528.1 171.5L382 150.2 316.7 17.8c-11.7-23.6-45.6-23.9-57.4 0L194 150.2 47.9 171.5c-26.2 3.8-36.7 36.1-17.7 54.6l105.7 103-25 145.5c-4.5 26.3 23.2 46 46.4 33.7L288 439.6l130.7 68.7c23.2 12.2 50.9-7.4 46.4-33.7l-25-145.5 105.7-103c19-18.5 8.5-50.8-17.7-54.6zM388.6 312.3l23.7 138.4L288 385.4l-124.3 65.3 23.7-138.4-100.6-98 139-20.2 62.2-126 62.2 126 139 20.2-100.6 98z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brown Sugar: Friends since childhood, a magazine editor and a hip-hop record executive stumble into romantic territory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[504,1],"tags":[595,1929,1930,1931,1646,1764,3656,1932,577,528],"class_list":["post-12158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews-b","category-reviews","tag-595","tag-boris-kodjoe","tag-brown-sugar","tag-mos-def","tag-nicole-ari-parker","tag-queen-latifah","tag-4-stars","tag-rick-famuyiwa","tag-sanaa-lathan","tag-taye-diggs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12158"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81858,"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12158\/revisions\/81858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}