Netflix's newest rom-com arrived this week with a premise that is equal parts tender and absurd, and somehow pulls both off. Voicemails for Isabelle, now streaming, centers on Jill, a rising chef still processing the loss of her sister Isabelle. Her way of coping is to keep calling Isabelle's phone number, leaving the kind of…
There was a moment in Hollywood stretching roughly from the mid-1990s into the early 2000s when Black-led romantic comedies felt like a genre unto themselves. Films built around couples like the ones at the center of Love Jones and Love & Basketball drew audiences in with warmth, humor and an emotional authenticity that felt rare.…

