The Legacy Of The Buppie Film
From top left to right: Vivica A. Fox, Vanessa WILLIAMS, & NIA Long (Soul food), Angela Bassett & Taye Diggs (How Stella Got Her Groove Back), Gabrielle Union (DEliver us from eva), Taye Diggs, Morris Chestnut, Harold Perrineau, & Terrence Howard (The Best man: Holiday), Loretta devine (Waiting to Exhale), Shemar Moore & Susan Dalian (The brothers), and Christopher Scott Cherot & Chenoa Maxwell (Hav plenty).
Out from the ashes of Shaft and Super Fly’s ‘70s blaxploitation ghettoscapes, a new genre of African American cinema was born. Molding from the frustrations of a blossoming middle class of Black creatives and audiences who were sick of the cheap superficial caricatures of the ‘70s, the ‘90s saw the birth of the buppie film genre. Named after the term for “Black Upwardly Mobile/Urban Young Professional,” buppie films are characterized by a narrative focus on the daily lives of the Black middle class, created by Black writers and directors. They also feature more serious acting from their Black-led casts. Though the audiences of these films were mostly African American, most were intended for a wide range of viewers. The makers of buppie films sought to redefine the way African Americans were portrayed on screen and expand the kinds of African American stories films could portray. Buppie films spearheaded the ‘90s “Golden Age” of Black cinema and initiated the careers of many of today’s most esteemed African American actors and directors.
The buppie films’ focus on telling relatable stories about friendship and Black love changed African American film narratives, but it especially impacted Black women for the better. Though still held back by typical ‘90s sexism, the Black women of buppie films were far more fleshed out than their ‘70s and ‘80s predecessors. Waiting to Exhale (1995) follows a friend group of four Black women in their respective journeys toward finding love for both themselves and a committed relationship. Each character is her own, complete with human imperfections and dreams that make them each relatable and specific. Waiting’s Robin Stokes (Lela Rochon) was the long-time lover to a married man until she dumped him. When she finds out she is pregnant with his child, she decides to raise the kid on her own, having aborted her first pregnancy. Stokes’ choices are powerful in the context of abortions and single parenting— topics that were still taboo and stigmatized for Black women in the ‘90s.
Buppie films also featured sexy and romantic escapist fantasy stories. How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998) follows 40-year-old successful professional and single-mother Stella Payne (Angela Bassett) and the fling she has with the 20-something Winston Shakespeare (Taye Diggs) on her vacation to Jamaica. How Stella follows Stella’s troubles when she realizes her island fling might be real love. How Stella doesn’t shame its title character for being a little all over the place with her emotions. Stella’s relationship with Winston is one she is in control of and sets (and unsets) the limits of. Basset shines in her portrayal of the complicated Stella, a role for which she was awarded the 1999 Acapulco Black Film Festival Award for Best Actress and the 1999 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture deservedly. Both Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back were also box office successes, with Waiting opening number one in the North American box office the first weekend of its release and How Stella earning nearly $40 million on its $20 million budget. Buppie films changed the way Black women’s stories could be told in Hollywood, and audiences in turn responded with momentous acclaim.
One of the biggest late ‘90s buppie films was 1999’s The Best Man. The film follows writer Harper Stewart (Taye Diggs) as he reunites with his college friends in preparation for his friend Lance’s (Morris Chestnut) wedding. Harper’s upcoming bestselling novel loosely based on the college drama of his friends is set to publish right after the wedding, but when a presale copy is spread around the group thanks to his ex-lover Jordan Armstrong (Nia Long), Harper struggles to keep the book and it's not-so-fictional secrets from getting into the wrong hands. Engaging and entertaining, The Best Man served as the breakout film for actors Terrence Howard, Morris Chestnut, and Regina Hall. For Howard especially, The Best Man marked the beginning of his successful career; his role as the quirky and sardonic groomsman Quentin Spivey got him nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actor. Though Chestnut has won or been nominated for fewer awards, The Best Man’s success saw him star in more buppie films, including 2001’s The Brothers and Two Can Play That Game. For Hall, The Best Man kickstarted her whole career. Though she only played the minor character of Candace ‘Candy’ Sparks, a stripper with a heart of gold who enamors comic relief Murch (Harold Perrineau), being on The Best Man led to Hall meeting Sanaa Lathan, who later appeared with Hall in her second film ever, Love and Basketball. Though not their breakout roles, Lathan and Taye Diggs received much acclaim for their performances in The Best Man. Lathan’s role in Blade had earned her much exposure by the time she played The Best Man’s Robyn, but the film still earned her a nomination for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. Similarly, Diggs’ role as the audacious and charismatic Winston Shakespeare in his screen acting debut film How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998) had earned him exposure and his first film award nomination. Still, The Best Man got him his first NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture. The success of The Best Man solidified it as a ‘90s classic and led to a sequel in 2014, The Best Man: Holiday, and a miniseries in 2022, The Best Man: The Final Chapters.
Beyond just a demand for more Black narratives in general, a specific demand for Black female centered stories saw many buppie films concerned with the daily lives of modern Black women. Black actresses flourished in opportunities to show their artistic talents. For Nia Long, buppies Love Jones (1997) and The Best Man (1999) were the first jewels in her Black cinema ‘It Girl’ crown. Both Loves Jones and The Best Man highlight Long playing alluring and complicated women who don’t fit in any one stereotypical box. Both movies made Nia Long popular in the awards arena: Love Jones got her nominated for Best Actress in the American Black Film Festival and Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture in NAACP Image Awards. The Best Man and its 2014 sequel The Best Man: Holiday got her Black Reel Awards Outstanding Actress and NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture in 2000 and American Black Film Festival Best Actress and Best Ensemble Cast in 2014.
Many classic ‘90s buppies were also career launchers for their writers, directors, and producers. Their successes allowed for more investment into the films of African American screenwriters and directors and the continued creation of African American-led films. Soul Food (1997), one of the most successful buppies of the era, serves as writer and director George Tillman Jr.’s major studio debut. The film follows a relatable middle class African American family that struggles to stick together after the hospitalization of their matriarch (known lovingly as Big Mama) makes them break their Sunday dinner tradition. It is based on Tillman’s own family and, just like home cooking, the intimacy and honesty of its story and characters proved to be as much of a warm comfort for African American audiences as the cuisine it is named after. Soul Food earned a total domestic gross of $43 million and earned Tillman a nomination for the Acapulco Black Film Award for Best Director. Soul Food’s success also earned Tillman and producing partner Robert Teitel a two-year deal with 20th Century Fox. Tillman would continue to create and work on other projects centering African American personalities, including his 2018 film The Hate U Give, based on the 2017 book of the same name.
Hav Plenty (1997) is another directorial debut that launched its director, Christopher Scott Cherot, to major heights. The film started out as a low budget indie film that Cherot made on earnings from his job as a taxi driver in New York and donations from family and friends. Hav Plenty blew up overnight when, after seeing Hav Plenty at the 1997 Acapulco Black Film Festival (now American Black Film Festival) where Cherot won Best of the Festival, producers Tracey and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds attached their names to the film. The following September, Miramax bought the film from Cherot in a multimillion-dollar deal. When it was released theatrically in the summer of ‘98 the originally $65,000 budget film earned a whopping $2.284 million in the box office. It also ended up featuring big name stars Nia Long, Shemar Moore, and Lauryn Hill. Just as the ‘90s buppies paved the way to success for the actors who starred in them, they did the same for the creatives who made them.
The buppie genre also served as a platform for writer-directors to portray Black life truthfully and creatively. Many of the most successful buppies were based on the experiences and lives of their writer-directors. The Wood (1999), which serves as the feature film directorial debut for writer and director Rick Famuyiwa, is a semi-autobiographical account of his upbringing in Inglewood, California. The lighthearted comedy shifts between the past and present experiences of three old friends who recount their childhood memories as they prepare one of the friends for his wedding that he panics and gets cold feet for. The Wood earned Famuyiwa multiple nominations, including the 2000 Black Reel Award nomination for Best Director and Best Screenplay, as well as the 2000 NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Motion Picture. The film is especially notable for its focus on the African American coming of age experience, a storyline that is still rare to see. Despite its goofiness and era-typical sexism, The Wood still manages to be a touching portrayal of African American male youth. In 2015, Famuyiwa released Dope, another Black boy coming-of-age film set in Inglewood. Like how The Wood plays on ‘90s nostalgia for the ‘80s, Dope follows characters who idolize the ‘90s. Famuyiwa calls back to his 1999 hit in Dope by featuring De’Aundre Bonds’ character Stacy in the 2015 film. Like Soul Food, it is Famuyiwa’s personal connection to the content that makes his films feel special. Famuyiwa deeply incorporated the setting into the stories of his films, sincerely and positively bringing his hometown Inglewood to life.
The success of buppie films proved to white Hollywood that Black actors could play more than superficial stereotypes and that Black audiences wanted what Black creatives wrote. Many of the ‘90s buppie films were the career launching debut films of the writer-directors who made them. The intimate and positive portrayals of African American life shown in buppie films made them hits among the Black middle class. Today, the ‘90s era is hailed as the ‘Golden Age’ of Black cinema and television, and many buppie films continue to reign in the consumer consciousness as some of the peak points of representation for African Americans in film.
