If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
Genre: Drama / Romance
Duration: 117 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Barry Jenkins
Stars: KiKi Layne, Stephan James and Regina King
IMDb score:
7,1 (54.934)
Releasedate: 14 December 2018
If Beale Street Could Talk plot
"Trust Love All The Way"
The 1970s. The film focuses on the lives of some poor African-Americans in Harlem and in particular on nineteen-year-old pregnant Tish. She must race against the clock to prove the innocence of her lover, Fonny. He is wrongly imprisoned pending trial and is accused of rape.
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Actors and actresses
Tish Rivers
Alonzo "Fonny" Hunt
Sharon Rivers
Joseph Rivers
Mrs. Hunt
Frank Hunt
Hayward
Daniel Carty
Victoria Rogers
Ernestine Rivers
Reviews & comments
tbouwh
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- 5823 messages
- 5404 votes
I regret that I see more and more films [or maybe that is a feeling rather than a fact] in which voice-overs are used too frequently to sketch emotional worlds. Show anyway, and tell through images...
Take the scene in 'If Beale Street Could Talk' which shows how white men in the perfumery absorb scent in a different way than black men. Visually you can convey that powerful enough, but in the film everything KiKi Layne thinks on the screen is directly translated into the screenplay. There is no possible form of ambiguity.
I also find it difficult that Jenkins seems to feel the need to wrap his liberal love story in a forced family feud annex anti-religious discourse. The son's closing prayer at the end of the film forcibly harks back to the beginning; to me, Fonny's response insinuated that he was struggling with the way his son had apparently been raised in his absence. It ties in with a general trend of representation in this film: emancipated father figures/men, conservative or timid mother figures/women. The mater familias at the beginning is not timid but hyper-conservative. Those firm dialogues serve a purpose. Then there's the political layer, which gets in the way of the fiction [the characters remain static and largely one-dimensional]. Especially when archival footage is played around towards the end. Then the more unambiguous form of I am not your Negro really worked countless times better.
Now I definitely don't want to put the film down, because I thought Britell's music was beautiful and Jenkins' sense of rhythm, mise-es and use of color remains undisputed for me too. But I don't understand the lyric. Is stereotyping no longer a bad thing if the overall tone of the film is progressive?
Translated from Dutch · View original
IH88
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- 9761 messages
- 3190 votes
“I hope that nobody has ever had to look at anybody they love through glass.”
Lyrical and poetic film by Barry Jenkins. The man can make films, that much is clear after seeing the wonderful If Beale Street Could Talk. Because of Jenkins' style and direction choices, the film can sometimes feel a bit distant, but the film also has a big heart.
The directing, the camera work (the way Jenkins points the camera at the actors' faces is phenomenal), the use of color, the cinematography, the acting etc. What a class. Layne and James are not the best actors, but the way they are portrayed makes you feel every emotion. The supporting actors are great. Regina King and Brain Tyree Henry both have a scene that gave me goosebumps. The ending could have been better, but it shows that some love stories can overcome the biggest obstacles. A nice message.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Film Pegasus (moderator films)
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- 31191 messages
- 5473 votes
The story itself is a beautiful romantic tragedy with the dark side of racism in the background. Barry Jenkins has managed to portray it very nicely. Normally the focus is on racism and we get a lot of clichés. He certainly does not shy away from that theme, it remains the common thread in the film. But the film radiates warmth again. The white figures are peripheral figures, it is about the beloved couple who has to deal with the heavy setback. A film full of love with a large dose of sadness. The images, the colours, the music, … are all perfectly interwoven. Like the smoke of a cigar, the trumpet of Miles Davis, the warmth of a fire. What you look at with a lot of love, but also filled with melancholy.
The film is small and that's how it should be. No grand plot twists or events, but intimate. It won't be to everyone's taste. If you take the time for it, you can certainly enjoy it. A very nice movie.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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