Adapted from a 1974 James Baldwin novel of the same name, Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk follow-up to his 2016 Oscar winner for Best Picture Moonlight is a soft tale of two African American lovers set in 1970’s Harlem. After the critical success of Moonlight, Jenkins more or less could have picked whatever movie he wanted to do next and received the green light and the funding. If anything, I am glad that he only waited about a year to begin his next project. If Beale Street Could Talk is a fine little film. As good as it is, I expect that the novel was even better.
Category Archives: Barry Jenkins
Moonlight (2016)
Barry Jenkins’ (Medicine for Melancholy) Moonlight is an ambitious film in so many different ways. Though it particularly revolves around the uncertainty of being gay, it also touches on many of the other important issues of the day, including adolescent bullying, drug abuse, masculinity, broken relationships, and poverty. The acting in this movie is out of this world. Never does this feel like a movie to me. Rather it feels like you are just an invisible camera watching three different stages of a male discovering and dealing with his sexual identity in the hardships of a destitute part of Miami, Floria. The film is divided into three chapters. All are centered around the same Chiron. At age 6 or 7, he is referred to as Little. At age 16 or 17 (the chapter that gets the most focus), he is Chiron. And for the last chapter, he’s age 26 or 27 and goes by the name Black. He’s equally conflicted in all three different stages of his life. The simplicity of this movie is its strength. If you like artistic movies that center around a real story with characters who feel real, you will probably find this movie absolutely riveting.
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