If Beale Street Could Talk
Ten Second Review: A beautiful and delicately constructed film. If Beale Street Could Talk combines the poetic writing of James Baldwin and the directorial ability of Barry Jenkins effortlessly.
I’ve never read If Beale Street Could Talk and before having seen the film I had never seen the trailer. To be honest I was unsure of what the film was about and thought it was gonna be about Blues music. Safe to say, I was quite far off the mark and the film was something else all together.
If Beale Street Could Talk tells the story of lifelong friends Fonny (Stephen James) and Tish (Kiki Layne) as they fall in love and navigate charges dealt against Fonny while Tish is pregnant. We see their relationship form and build in a twisting time line that shows us their first dates and the development of their love while interlacing this with Fonny’s charges and his time in prison.
The film is just an excellent piece of storytelling, I don’t know where I’d find fault if I were asked to. The delicate hand of Jenkins and the beautiful and powerful story from Baldwin come together to make a truly moving watch. It might not be full of action or a scintillating and high paced romp but its as engaging as you could ever wish a film to be.
The acting throughout was just amazing and was able to switch from light hearted and funny to deeply heart wrenching. Special mentions must go to Colman Domingo, Teyonah Parris and Bryan Tyree Henry who all play their relatively small roles with deep levels of empathy, sincerity and an impressive ability to switch to a more light hearted tone when the script calls for it. Regina King also deserves immense praise for her role which sees her truly present all the emotions that one can possibly go through. She fully inhabits the life that she is portraying while she is on that screen. I would say that Dave Franco wasn’t the best casting for his role and that would about sum up the very short list of one change I would make to the film.
The music, costuming and colour palette of the film were also wonderfully constructed. There were shots were you forgot about the movie and were just entranced by the music and the clothes the characters were wearing. Whether you are watching for the story, the acting, the direction or the cinematic construction of this film, I doubt you’ll be disappointed.
If Beale Street Could Talk is a beautiful film and definitely worth the watch. It doesn’t need a big screen and I imagine it will stand the test of time so even if you don’t manage to see it at the cinema, I definitely recommend trying to catch it at some point.
