Five Black Romantic Movies to Stream

New York Times | Robert Daniels

For Valentine’s Day and Black History Month, watch these selections that brim with Black love, heartache and desire from across the diaspora.

‘Boomerang’ (1992)

Stream it on Paramount+.

The Black romantic studio pictures of the 1990s were far different from their 1970s Blaxploitation predecessors. Rather than depicting an urban milieu populated by hustlers and pushers, the films that arrived during the newer decade captured an emerging, well-educated Black middle and upper class occupying high rises and boardrooms.

In the director Reginald Hudlin’s screwball romance “Boomerang,” Eddie Murphy is Marcus Graham, a hot shot advertising executive and ladies man struggling to cope with having women like the hard-nosed Jacqueline (Robin Givens) as his boss. Though Marcus tries to seduce Jacqueline, hoping he can sleep his way to the top, he soon develops feelings for Jacqueline’s unassuming friend Angela (Halle Berry). Marcus and Angela’s whirlwind relationship teaches Marcus to love someone other than himself, making for a heart-melting finale that’s stronger than any business deal.