Loving someone is one of the most audacious, risk-taking things a person can do. When you love someone, you entrust them with your mental well-being, wagering that they will honor your faith in them and not lead you to a place of hurt and sorrow. Merely engaging in the act of caring for another is a leap of faith, but doing so in a world full of obstacles that seek to destroy both of you makes having the temerity to love that much more revolutionary.
This predicament is where we find Alonzo Fonny Hunt (Stephan James) and Tish Rivers (KiKi Layne) in If Beale Street Could Talk, director Barry Jenkins’ follow-up to one of the 21st century’s best American films 2016’s Moonlight. The film is set in early 1970s New York City and revolves around the young couples love affair, and their plans of a dream life together, before those lives are upended when when Fonny is arrested for a crime he did not commit.
If Beale Street Could Talk documents not just the tumultuousness that directly affects the relationship between Fonny and Tish, but how the downward pressure of police misconduct, poverty, and general social inequality affects their extended relationships with their parents, siblings, and eventually their child as well. As their fathers John and Frank scrimp and scrape up whatever cash they can through cutting corners and hustling for Fonny’s defense, or as Regina King flies to Puerto Rico to make her case toward Fonny’s accuser to recant and set him free, we see how finding the strength to love and endure in the face of roadblocks set up to drain the love out of you is a battle within the battle. Finding joy and moments of happiness through tough times and pain has been black Americans’ lot in life in a country that often seeks to rob them of any semblance of comfort. As black Americans face challenges to their very humanity, rising above the negativity to embark on the most human of all things, to love, provides a refuge within themselves that they are unable to receive from the world. This is a universal experience for black people in America which was covered beautifully in the film’s opening screen; every black neighborhood in the country has a “Beale Street” whose inhabitants suffer the same indignities and rise above them all the same. With this screenplay and film, Barry Jenkins has wonderfully encapsulated what it means to live and love while being black in America.
If Beale Street Could Talk is another high quality entry in the filmography of director Barry Jenkins and what is fast becoming his signature style. Jenkins has a very intimate and tender film-making style and as a film about love and the strength behind it, If Beale Street Could Talk fits like a glove. The film also contains lush, colorful cinematography and the intimate camera work that takes the audience right into the characters faces so that we may experience their feelings as our own and become engrossed in their humanity and very being. The look of the film is vibrant while still maintaining the authentic feel of the time period with the set pieces and wardrobe to match. The score of the film is as important to its feel as its visuals with a jazzy score reminiscent of Spike Lee’s films and invoking a deep sense of connectivity and love, as well as that time period in New York City. Music and falling in love often go hand in hand with our first magical moments of falling for someone often being accompanied by some song that played as we gazed into their deeply for the first time. What Nicholas Britell created for this film captures this feeling perfectly and he has crafted perhaps the year’s best film score in a historically great year for film scores. Agape is one of the most beautiful film themes you will ever hear.
The ensemble performance from the film’s actors also bring a feeling of authenticity onscreen, with of Stephan James and KiKi Layne of course being the most important pieces. With the entire film revolving around the believability of their chemistry, James and Layne portray lifelong friends turned lovers in a natural and satisfying way. The genuine feel of their connection and their desire to build something together out of nothing powers the film and ensures that it works to its fullest extent. Regina King and Colman Domingo excel in supporting roles as Tish’s parents Sharon and Joseph. King is given more to do than Domingo but both utilize the time they are given to the fullest, with King’s dogged determination to help her future son-in-law providing an extra layer of emotion in addition to the main storyline.
If Beale Street Could Talk is a masterful rumination on the black lived experience in the United States and how marginalized people turn to each other to find solace and reasons to endure in the face of daily obstacles that give them all the reason not to. The story at the center of the film is powered by its co-leads in Stephan James and KiKi Layne and the two actors answer the challenge with resounding aplomb. James gives one of the year’s best performances with Regina King also performing capably in a supporting role. Composer Nicholas Britell contributes one of the year’s best scores with a lush, gorgeous jazz soundtrack that accentuates the film’s love affair. Director Barry Jenkins latest is simultaneously an intimate love story and a subtle but poignant treatise on the black experience. If Beale Street Could Talk is receiving good recognition critically but I have noticed some saying they weren’t blown away by the film and admitting that some of that may be due to the fact that the film was preceded by the beloved Moonlight, and is therefore suffering due to the unfortunate comparison.
Indeed, If Beale Street Could Talk feels as if it is being overlooked due to its proximity to Jenkins’ seminal Oscar winning film, which may be the best America has offered this century. The conundrum reminds me of the circumstances surrounding the release of the rapper Nas’ sophomore album It Was Written following his genre changing debut Illmatic. Because It Was Written immediately followed an album that many still believe to be rap’s greatest album twenty-five years after its release, critics and fans alike expressed disappointment in a work that differed so greatly from the gritty boom-bap brilliance of Illmatic and failed to duplicate the lofty, transformative heights Nas’ debuted had reached. While commercially successful, It Was Written was criticized heavily by critics and purists upon release. It wasn’t until years later, with greater distance from Illmatic’s release, that Nas’ second album began to experience a recalibration of its quality and a greater appreciation for it was formed. Following up a masterpiece is a tall task and even if you do so capably, the love for the prior work can dull the shine of a perfectly good follow up in the nostalgic eyes of people in the immediate. I feel pity for those who cannot grasp and appreciate the beauty of If Beale Street Could Talk due to continued awe toward Moonlight. The film stands on its own as its own work with its own voice and story to tell and that shouldn’t be lost in the cinematic history that Jenkins’ previous work achieved. If Beale Street Could Talk is a very good film that stands on its own, hopefully people won’t need the passage of time to fully recognize and reward it for being so.
Image: Annapurna Pictures
