If Beale Street Could Talk - Review
Director: Barry Jenkins
Cast: Kiki Layne, Stephen James, Regina King, Colman Domingo, Brian Tyree Henry, Teyonah Parris, Michael Beach
After 2016's heartbreakingly artistic Best Picture winner Moonlight, Barry Jenkins returns to cinema with If Beale Street Could Talk, adapting James Baldwin's novel of the same name into a lusciously captured and entirely unmissable love story.
Having been friends since childhood, Tish (Layne) and Fonny (James) become a loving and devoted couple that dream of planning their future together. However, Fonny is arrested for a crime he didn't commit and Tish, with her family's support, fights to clear his name and have him acquitted before the birth of their child.
If Beale Street Could Talk is a richly layered piece of work, brimming with atmosphere thanks to the stunning cinematography, with Jenkins flexing his emotional and visual artistry to new heights. The audience are voyeurs and intimate witnesses to Tish and Fonny's love story; every shot, every frame is achingly gorgeous. Jenkins' singular close-ups linger on our central characters, allowing us to be privy to every reaction and feeling that flashes across their face - loving gazes, pained glances...we see it all. New York City is also beautifully captured, acting both as the landscape for Tish and Fonny's love story and their battleground as they fight for Fonny's freedom after he is falsely accused of rape. Such stylistic auteurism can often run the rick of detracting our attention away from the story, but each painstakingly crafted piece of visual language only makes us embrace the narrative more in a sensory, overwhelming and poetic experience.
Remaining faithful to the source material, Jenkins refuses to flinch away from portraying the systematic racism that pervades the American justice system. This commentary and bleak portrayal is handled gracefully; there's no trace of anger, just a sad acceptance of the world in which these characters live. The film is relentlessly optimistic and hopeful, rooted in the familial and romantic love that is on display with the belief that it can be the salvation in the most unfathomable and despairing of situations.
This approach to injustice wouldn't be nearly as effective without the utterly convincing and rapturing relationship between Tish and Fonny. Kiki Layne and Stephen James as the focal couple are revelatory and their roles will be deservedly heralded as their breakthrough performances. Layne's Tish is a tentative individual but her quiet and reserved nature doesn't stop her from defending herself against her boyfriend's disapproving mother and doing everything in her power to prove Fonny's innocence. She shows strength beyond her age and in spite of what her immediate impression may suggest. Meanwhile, James gives a thoughtfully measured performance; Fonny is charming, charismatic and completely devoted to Tish, intent on carving out their future together. But he cannot mask his vulnerability as he struggles to remain hopeful about the possibility of his release when he is incarcerated for a crime that did not commit. Even in their darkest of times, Tish and Fonny's love never falters. Other love stories that are presented in the film are equally as searing and impactful, heightened by the film's incredible supporting cast including Regina King (who has garnered an Oscar nomination for her performance and a slew of other awards) and Brian Tyree Henry who delivers perhaps the most unnerving and gut-wrenching scenes in the entire film.
Brutal but tender, damning but hopeful, If Beale Street Could Talk is a hauntingly beautiful portrait of love and the many various ways in which it can be seen or felt and proves that Jenkins' prowess as a filmmaker is incomparable.
EB
Cast: Kiki Layne, Stephen James, Regina King, Colman Domingo, Brian Tyree Henry, Teyonah Parris, Michael Beach
After 2016's heartbreakingly artistic Best Picture winner Moonlight, Barry Jenkins returns to cinema with If Beale Street Could Talk, adapting James Baldwin's novel of the same name into a lusciously captured and entirely unmissable love story.Having been friends since childhood, Tish (Layne) and Fonny (James) become a loving and devoted couple that dream of planning their future together. However, Fonny is arrested for a crime he didn't commit and Tish, with her family's support, fights to clear his name and have him acquitted before the birth of their child.
If Beale Street Could Talk is a richly layered piece of work, brimming with atmosphere thanks to the stunning cinematography, with Jenkins flexing his emotional and visual artistry to new heights. The audience are voyeurs and intimate witnesses to Tish and Fonny's love story; every shot, every frame is achingly gorgeous. Jenkins' singular close-ups linger on our central characters, allowing us to be privy to every reaction and feeling that flashes across their face - loving gazes, pained glances...we see it all. New York City is also beautifully captured, acting both as the landscape for Tish and Fonny's love story and their battleground as they fight for Fonny's freedom after he is falsely accused of rape. Such stylistic auteurism can often run the rick of detracting our attention away from the story, but each painstakingly crafted piece of visual language only makes us embrace the narrative more in a sensory, overwhelming and poetic experience.
Remaining faithful to the source material, Jenkins refuses to flinch away from portraying the systematic racism that pervades the American justice system. This commentary and bleak portrayal is handled gracefully; there's no trace of anger, just a sad acceptance of the world in which these characters live. The film is relentlessly optimistic and hopeful, rooted in the familial and romantic love that is on display with the belief that it can be the salvation in the most unfathomable and despairing of situations.
This approach to injustice wouldn't be nearly as effective without the utterly convincing and rapturing relationship between Tish and Fonny. Kiki Layne and Stephen James as the focal couple are revelatory and their roles will be deservedly heralded as their breakthrough performances. Layne's Tish is a tentative individual but her quiet and reserved nature doesn't stop her from defending herself against her boyfriend's disapproving mother and doing everything in her power to prove Fonny's innocence. She shows strength beyond her age and in spite of what her immediate impression may suggest. Meanwhile, James gives a thoughtfully measured performance; Fonny is charming, charismatic and completely devoted to Tish, intent on carving out their future together. But he cannot mask his vulnerability as he struggles to remain hopeful about the possibility of his release when he is incarcerated for a crime that did not commit. Even in their darkest of times, Tish and Fonny's love never falters. Other love stories that are presented in the film are equally as searing and impactful, heightened by the film's incredible supporting cast including Regina King (who has garnered an Oscar nomination for her performance and a slew of other awards) and Brian Tyree Henry who delivers perhaps the most unnerving and gut-wrenching scenes in the entire film.
Brutal but tender, damning but hopeful, If Beale Street Could Talk is a hauntingly beautiful portrait of love and the many various ways in which it can be seen or felt and proves that Jenkins' prowess as a filmmaker is incomparable.
EB
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