R, 1h 59min – Crime, Drama, Romance
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After winning best picture for his first feature length film “Moonlight,” director Barry Jenkins has not suffered from the “sophomore slump,” delivering a nuanced and beautiful piece of cinema with “If Beale Street Could Talk.”
Based on James Baldwin’s 1974 novel of the same name, Jenkins’ film follows a woman in Harlem desperately trying to prove her fiancé is innocent of a crime while carrying their first child.
After the sensory overload of big-budgeted studio pictures the last couple of months, it was refreshing to end 2018 watching one of the new masters of cinema do such wonderful work. Jenkins’ second outing is near perfection and his cast is superb, starting with a relative newcomer in KiKi Layne, up-and-comer Stephan James (“Selma”), and the wonderful veteran actress Regina King (“Ray,” “Jerry Maguire”), who hasn’t gotten the proper mainstream respect she deserves in the 30+ years she has been doing great work. King is the emotional backbone here, and it would be a damn shame if she wasn’t given a Best Supporting Actress nod for her work in this picture.
The cinematography by James Laxton (“Moonlight,” “Tusk”) perfectly captures the early 1970’s feel of the film, with camera movement that is appropriate to the material but never forced. Like a well-choreographed dance the movement is never intrusive and enhances the emotional core of the scene(s) in question.
“If Beale Street Could Talk” explores young love set to the backdrop of institutional racism and and the mass incarceration of young black men, but it never allows itself to become too cynical. It has every right to be. At their core, this couple is fighting for each other – and their unborn child – not because of revenge or hate but because of love. This isn’t a film that spends its runtime lecturing the audience or trying to right wrongs. Yes, the message is indeed baked into the movie, but writer/director Jenkins never loses sight of what drives the entire ensemble of wonderful characters to stand up for each other: Love, hope, and sacrifice.
In a world where the loudest and angriest voices are getting the largest platforms, a quiet movie like “If Beale Street Could Talk” is just the right medicine to finish off the year. This film is a poem.