Movie Review: If Beale Street Could Talk

Michael's Movie Grade: A+

Review: Many directors spend their careers aspiring to make a film as touching, human, powerful and near perfect as If Beale Street Could Talk. Some never achieve it and those that do are usual old pros who have been in the movie business long enough to master there craft little by little and film by film. What makes If Beale Street Could Talk even more incredible is that somehow director Barry Jenkins was able to pull off such an incredible work of art so early in his career. It seems to often that people cry that "cinema is dead" and there is little hope for this upcoming generation of movies. While I am extremely passionate about old movies and always will be, I can not agree with this assessment. Because as long as new generations of filmmakers can make movies like If Beale Street Could Talk, cinema can never die and if this is a helping of what new filmmakers have to offer, I could not look forward to what is on the horizon more.


This movie manages to be both hopeful and painful at the same time. There are many scenes in this movie that are very difficult to watch, because what is on screen feels all too real. This could not be accomplished if the characters were not completely real to us. They are real because they are so complex and human. Tish (Kiki Lane (giving an incredibly powerful performance in her first theatrical feature)) has youthful optimism. However this is pushed well beyond its limits at times, and we see her struggle with this. It would have been easy to make her constantly optimistic, but this would have been artificial. Even the most optimistic people have times they struggle with doubt especially when things seems as hopeless as they do here. Fonny (Stephan James (in another incredible performance from a young star)) is an innocent man locked in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He is extremely likable, but he is not faultless. Prison does get to him at times and he can lash out his anger at those he shouldn't. Again this keeps him from being the bland and unconvincing character, he so easily could have been. However this movie isn't all despair and sadness as there is an underlying humanity underneath it all. This is a movie about the evils of racism, but it is a story of humanity still managing to survive in the most dire of circumstances.

This film is masterfully put together and beautifully cinematic. James Laxton's cinematography is beautiful and keeps the viewer's visual interest perfectly even during the most talk filled scenes. Often what you are seeing on screen during Tish's narration is just as powerful and emotional effective as what you are hearing. This movie is not told in a liner fashion as it often goes from past to "present" and back again. While many movies use such a device to make themselves look artsy or important. Watching this movie one can't imagine the story being told any other way. The more you see of the past makes the "present" all the more powerful. To see these two falling in love and trying to make it in a world stacked against them is heartbreaking when you know where it is going to lead. Yet in the same way these scenes work as a perfect relief to the despair in the "present" scenes. This also creates an alarming juxtaposition between the two times, that makes both more powerful.

This movie is fantastic on every single level, and a true work of art.

-Michael J. Ruhland