Sylvie’s Love 2020

      A young woman meets an aspiring saxophonist while she is working in her father's record shop in 1950s Harlem New York.  Their love ignites a sweeping romance that transcends changing times, geography and professional success.  Sylvie’s Love is an old-fashioned love story set in the late 1950s and early 1960s with mainly Black characters and a great jazz soundtrack.  The main love interest is a talented saxophone player who falls in love with a young woman who is engaged to another wealthier man. 

 
     The couple flirts, dances, kisses and eventually have a scene where they undress to their undergarments.  Other male and female characters also dance and kiss but the sexual content is mostly discussed in euphemisms.  There is one raunchy joke that will likely fly over younger viewers' heads.  An unplanned pregnancy results and some extramarital affairs take place.  A man says his wife should only work if she can keep up with her responsibilities in the home.  Characters smoke cigarettes and drink beer and cocktails in social settings consistent with this era.  A woman reveals her own bias and racism in a conversation.

     I found this to be an interesting and engaging film.  I really loved the cars of this time period and the music as well.  The values of the characters are very rigid with some fluctuations.  Slyvie’s mother teaches posture, social standing and decorum to young girls in her apartment.  She uses Slyvie as an example and she tells Slyvie that she must marry within her station and not below.  She considers Robert to be beneath Slyvie’s social status and she doesn’t want Slyvie to see him again.  Slyvie tries to separate herself from Robert but their attraction to each other is too strong.  Separation does happen when Robert and the band are invited to travel to France to perform.  Robert invites Slyvie to travel with him but she refuses.  5* (I really liked this movie)   

114 min, Drama directed and written by Eugene Ashe with Tessa Thompson, Nnamdi Asomugha, Evea Longoria, Aja Naomi King, Jemima Kirke, Tone Bell, Rege-Jean Page, Alano Miller, Raquel Horsford, Tucker Smallwood, Erica Gimpel, Ryan Michelle Bathe, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Lotus Plummer, Lance Reddick.

Note:  Imdb 6.5* out of 10* with 1384 reviews, 94% with 84 critics 85% with 84 audience scores, Metacritic 74 out of 100 with 15 critic reviews, Roger Ebert 4* Tomris Laffly, RollingStone 3* out of 5* David Fear, Amazon 4.8* out of 5* with 215 reviews, Common Sense Media Jennifer Green, 3* out of 5*, age 13+, 1* violence, 2* consumerism, drinking, drugs & smoking, 3* positive messages, role models, sex.