Barry Jenkins loves cinema. Back with yet another Oscar contender, Jenkins proves his seemingly-fearless dedication to telling difficult stories. Adapting If Beale Street Could Talk, a book by the evergreen James Baldwin, is a risky move that paid off. Despite the critical acclaim, Baldwin’s books have rarely made it onto the big screen. The pressure to shed new light on a well-loved story is not an easy one to shake, but Jenkins is successful in putting just enough of himself into the film without compromising the story itself.
If Beale Street Could Talk is a love letter to 70s Harlem, James Baldwin and the art of storytelling. The film is visually stunning without an ounce of arrogance or sacrificing of the content. If anything, the cinematography and the script complement each other well, as the struggle of black communities portrayed in the movie is never fetishised yet still treated with relentless honesty.
The film focuses on Alfonso ‘Fonny’ Hunt (Stephan James) and his girlfriend Tish Rivers (KiKi Layne), a young couple looking to build a life in a world unwilling to give up the status quo. The lack of privilege and a blistering racial bias feel all too current as Fonny is accused of a crime he didn’t commit, and the pair and their families struggle to prove his innocence in court. Tish and her family do their best to get Fonny home in time for the birth of his unexpected firstborn.
The performances are immaculate and calculated without feeling stiff. James and Layne’s chemistry translates brilliantly on screen and is easily the highlight of the film. Brian Tyree Henry delivers an emotionally-charged performance as Danny, Fonny’s childhood friend. Recalling his time behind bars, Henry occupies the screen in one of the most heart-wrenching scenes, the kind that tend to stay with you long after the credits finish rolling.
It wouldn’t be a Barry Jenkins movie if the characters didn’t stare directly into the camera lens, piercing the veil between the cinematic reality and that of the viewer. The characters’ lives merge with your own and its effect is lingering. Cinematographer James Laxton, who worked with Jenkins on the Oscar-winning Moonlight in 2016, helps deliver some of the best cinematography this awards season.
The non-linear narrative works in the film’s favour. It entices through the exploration of each character’s own specific yet shared way of operating in a system that is set against them. The subject of the racist justice system and its effect on individual lives is approached with vulnerability and perseverance, and the merging of the two is what makes the film so special. If Beale Street Could Talk fuses political commentary, a turbulent love story and family drama all in one. It’s an ode to Harlem, black families and their histories. If Beale Street Could Talk is a feeling as much as it is a movie.
Jenkins proves once again the Golden Age of Cinema is not yet behind us. Maybe it never was.
PHOTO: themarysue.com
