The Netflix original title Really Love premiered last week. The film stars Kofi Siriboe and the breakout actress Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing. Siriboe depicts Isaiah as an up-and-coming painter, and Sing portrays Stevie, a law student at Georgetown University.
The strangers meet in an art gallery.
The pair initially meet when Isaiah is intrigued by Stevie at an art gallery. The strangers are fascinated by one another and have a heated exchange of words. They coincidentally have the same friends and are reintroduced to each other.
As their love story begins, the film emphasizes the softness of their relationship by indulging in physical and emotional intimacy. The use of romantic nuances of slow dancing, lingering gazes, and soft forehead kisses. The characters start to fall in love. The smooth Neo soul and Jazz soundtrack helps to propel the story forward.
The love story progresses and shows how both characters are ultimately in the same place in their lives. Isaiah and Stevie feel pressure to fit into the mold of what their families want them to be. They are fighting for freedom and to fully express themselves in their careers.
In a scene where Isaiah doubts if his artwork is enough and wants to be able to express his ideas without having to explain them, “Just showing Black people as normal and beautiful and everything else,” he expresses to Stevie. Ironically, the same doubts and struggles Isaiah was having are what made the film a success.
Alicia Williams and Felicia Pride, the screenwriters of the movie, got the romance drama ‘right’ this time, according to Twitter. #ReallyLove was trending on the social media platform for being a safe place for Black love.
Twitter user @NaShall_Castle tweeted, “Black people being Black and normal, with the nuances of situations in everyday life… we just love to see it.”
This tweet proved to be the common theme associated with the title. The Black community as a whole seems tired of the stereotypical trauma associated with Black romantic relationships.
In The Conversation, an academic journal, professor Andrew Perry explains how stereotypes in the media are distorted. The article expressed how the public’s limited knowledge of Black men “can be used to perpetuate negative stereotypes that frame them as dangerous and predatory.”
‘Really Love’ is a positive image of how powerful Black love can be. And, starts a dialogue of the common misconceptions associated with the ideologies of what Black love is.