Gina Prince-Bythewood

Stephanie Zacharek says there is nothing particularly daring about Gina Prince-Bythewood's first feature, and then builds her praise out of exactly that: it is a fine example of a conventionally made picture which follows all the rules and still comes out fresh and original. Zacharek finds a layered, considered dimension in her staging and gives an instance of it; in Love & Basketball she cuts a men's basketball game against a women's game, showing quietly both the difference between the facilities and the difference in density and energy in the stands. She notes the deft use of pop music besides. Her reservation goes to the last act, which Prince-Bythewood might, on that view, have finessed a little more gracefully.