If Beale Street Could Talk - Movie Review
Directed by Barry Jenkins of "Moonlight" fame, it is about a man who is arrested for a crime he never committed while the girl he loves gets pregnant.
Cast - KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Teyonah Parris, Colman Domingo, Brian Tyree Henry, Ed Skrein, Emily Rios, Michael Beach, Aunjanue Ellis, Dave Franco
Directed By - Barry Jenkins
Genre - Romance, Drama, Crime
She was 19, and he was 22. They had been best friends since childhood and then developed a romantic relationship when they grew up. They walk together holding hands. "Are you ready for this?", she asks. "I have never been more ready for anything in my whole life.", He replies. But what follows next is perhaps something that they both were not ready for.
Fonny (Stephan James) gets arrested for raping a woman. A crime which he could not have possibly committed. What makes matter worse for him is that he is black which further brings down injustice on him. He becomes an easy target for playing the victim who is harassed by a white policeman outside a shop and gets falsely accused of something he did not do.
Among all the friends and the family members, it is Tish (KiKi Layne), the love of his life, who suffers the most because she is pregnant with his child. He is worried that he may have to see the child from behind bars. So when the raped victim, Victoria (Emily Rios) goes missing, he bangs the glass with rage and at another time, he shouts for help during a minor hiccup in her stomach as he looks helplessly towards her from the other side.
Tish says that "I hope that nobody has ever had to look at anybody they love through glass." It is the kind of barrier where you can see each other but are not able to make any physical contact. Tish and Fonny see each other's pain but are not able to help one another. They are close yet far away.
The movie unfolds in a non-linear fashion, and during one of the flashbacks, we see Tish and Fonny in search of an apartment. They meet Levy (Dave Franco) a landlord who shows them a work-under-progress and agrees to rent them at a reasonable rate. Since they have been refused by many white people before, they suspect him for being too kind and ask his motives. He merely tells that he enjoys seeing couples in love. Not all of them are the same, and this feeling of love is what separates them from the others. The casting of Dave Franco may make some groan with complaints of taking them "out of the experience", but this is a very light-hearted moment handled beautifully by the actors. We see glimmers of hope which is required in that dark world brought to life by James Laxton's cinematography. It reminded me of a scene from Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave where we see Brad Pitt and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
The music by Nicholas Britell helps in soothing your pain. Sometimes you become so oblivious to it that you realise it's presence only after it stops. This is particularly noticeable in a scene where Daniel (Brian Tyree Henry) and Fonny share a drink while the former narrates the horrific lives of the black people in the country. A deeply moving scene that is masterfully constructed to shake you to the core.
Kiki Layne shines in her feature debut starting with a very promising career. This is a rare example of an incredible performance from a debutant actor. Her chemistry with actor Stephan James is terrific. Regina King and Teyonah Parris as Tish's mother and sister respectively commanded the screen with there presence. Watch out for an intense get-together scene where the ladies take the stage mouthing each other while the mostly calm men's leave the room in haste. Needless to say that the fight starts when the man lands a hard blow on the face of the woman when she starts cussing Tish and her baby.
It's heartbreaking to realise that this movie is based on a 1974 novel of the same name by James Baldwin and the things it talks about holds even during the current modern times. Some stories remain credible long after they had been penned on the papers. The words do not change nor does the situation, but it does inspire someone else to take the legacy forward. After all, stories do not change, but the storyteller does. Perhaps "If Beale Street Could Talk" then it would probably bring out many more sad stories of other families having Tish and Fonny. It would certainly raise a voice against the injustice it faced for a very long time.
Rating - 5/5
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Cast - KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Teyonah Parris, Colman Domingo, Brian Tyree Henry, Ed Skrein, Emily Rios, Michael Beach, Aunjanue Ellis, Dave Franco
Directed By - Barry Jenkins
Genre - Romance, Drama, Crime
She was 19, and he was 22. They had been best friends since childhood and then developed a romantic relationship when they grew up. They walk together holding hands. "Are you ready for this?", she asks. "I have never been more ready for anything in my whole life.", He replies. But what follows next is perhaps something that they both were not ready for.
Fonny (Stephan James) gets arrested for raping a woman. A crime which he could not have possibly committed. What makes matter worse for him is that he is black which further brings down injustice on him. He becomes an easy target for playing the victim who is harassed by a white policeman outside a shop and gets falsely accused of something he did not do.
Among all the friends and the family members, it is Tish (KiKi Layne), the love of his life, who suffers the most because she is pregnant with his child. He is worried that he may have to see the child from behind bars. So when the raped victim, Victoria (Emily Rios) goes missing, he bangs the glass with rage and at another time, he shouts for help during a minor hiccup in her stomach as he looks helplessly towards her from the other side.
Tish says that "I hope that nobody has ever had to look at anybody they love through glass." It is the kind of barrier where you can see each other but are not able to make any physical contact. Tish and Fonny see each other's pain but are not able to help one another. They are close yet far away.
The movie unfolds in a non-linear fashion, and during one of the flashbacks, we see Tish and Fonny in search of an apartment. They meet Levy (Dave Franco) a landlord who shows them a work-under-progress and agrees to rent them at a reasonable rate. Since they have been refused by many white people before, they suspect him for being too kind and ask his motives. He merely tells that he enjoys seeing couples in love. Not all of them are the same, and this feeling of love is what separates them from the others. The casting of Dave Franco may make some groan with complaints of taking them "out of the experience", but this is a very light-hearted moment handled beautifully by the actors. We see glimmers of hope which is required in that dark world brought to life by James Laxton's cinematography. It reminded me of a scene from Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave where we see Brad Pitt and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
The music by Nicholas Britell helps in soothing your pain. Sometimes you become so oblivious to it that you realise it's presence only after it stops. This is particularly noticeable in a scene where Daniel (Brian Tyree Henry) and Fonny share a drink while the former narrates the horrific lives of the black people in the country. A deeply moving scene that is masterfully constructed to shake you to the core.
Kiki Layne shines in her feature debut starting with a very promising career. This is a rare example of an incredible performance from a debutant actor. Her chemistry with actor Stephan James is terrific. Regina King and Teyonah Parris as Tish's mother and sister respectively commanded the screen with there presence. Watch out for an intense get-together scene where the ladies take the stage mouthing each other while the mostly calm men's leave the room in haste. Needless to say that the fight starts when the man lands a hard blow on the face of the woman when she starts cussing Tish and her baby.
It's heartbreaking to realise that this movie is based on a 1974 novel of the same name by James Baldwin and the things it talks about holds even during the current modern times. Some stories remain credible long after they had been penned on the papers. The words do not change nor does the situation, but it does inspire someone else to take the legacy forward. After all, stories do not change, but the storyteller does. Perhaps "If Beale Street Could Talk" then it would probably bring out many more sad stories of other families having Tish and Fonny. It would certainly raise a voice against the injustice it faced for a very long time.
Rating - 5/5
Follow Me On:
Twitter - https://twitter.com/vikas_yadav98
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/vikasy199/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/vimovies123/
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