Thursday 27 December 2018

Film Review: "If Beale Street Could Talk" (2018).


"Trust Love All the Way" This is If Beale Street Could Talk. This romantic drama film adapted directed by Barry Jenkins, based on James Baldwin's novel of the same name. The film follows Tish, a newly engaged Harlem woman who races against the clock to prove her lover's innocence while carrying their first born child. It's a celebration of love told through the story of a young couple, their families, and their lives.

In early July 2017, it was announced that Barry Jenkins would direct an adaptation of the James Baldwin novel If Beale Street Could Talk. Jenkins wrote the screenplay during the summer of 2013, writing in conjunction with Moonlight. By September, Stephan James, KiKi Layne, and Teyonah Parris had joined the cast. In mid October 2017, it was reported that principal photography on the film began in New York City. By December, Regina King, Colman Domingo, Brian Tyree Henry, Dave Franco, Ed Skrein, Michael Beach, Finn Wittrock, Aunjanue Ellis, Diego Luna, Pedro Pascal and Emily Rios had rounded out the film's cast.

The film stars Layne, James, Domingo, Parris, Beach, Franco, Wittrock, Ellis, Luna, Pascal, Skrein, Tyree Henry, Rios, and King. All the performances given by the entire cast throughout the film were true and quietly heart-rending.

If Beale Street Could Talk uses multiple point-of-views to tell a woman's story that offers a remarkable and brilliantly crafted look at lives too rarely seen in cinema. It's without a doubt, the reason we go to the movies: to understand, to come closer, to ache, hopefully with another. It is an intimate and haunting drama that is achingly romantic and uncommonly wise. Although Jenkins' film is indeed about the struggles and difficulties of a person of colour struggling against the system for the sake of love, the story is universal in scope and intent. The film is both a disarmingly, at times almost unbearably personal film and an urgent social document, a hard look at American reality and a poem written in light, music and vivid human faces. Jenkin's exceptional romantic drama stays firmly planted in your mind by challenging the stilted ways of the past, causing you to look inward and reflect. It's a moving, unshakable piece of cinema that is not to be missed. Never think of the film as a Black story, just a human one. Jenkins still fuels his small, yet piercing exposition, with a cemented conviction that fortifies the serene rage and manages to instill a convincing dose of sympathy for the troubled players in New York's hidden haven of a hellhole. The film could never fully live up to the widespread acclaim and hype of Moonlight - but the fact it manages to get close to cinematic perfection is a true testament to how strong the film is. Even though so much of the film feels old-hat, what does make it to the screen is unforgettable. Basking in this, If Beale Street Could Talk is one of the cinematic joys of the year.

Simon says If Beale Street Could Talk receives:



Also, see my review for Moonlight.

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