If Beale Street Could Talk

Dir: Barry Jenkins

2018

*****

There was a great deal of anticipation for Barry Jenkins’ If Beeale Street Could Talk, following the huge success of his 2016 award-winning drama Moonlight, and while the film didn’t quite have the same fanfare, it certainly maintains the directors striking aesthetic and mesmerizing mood. Jenkins, much like his characters, say so much by saying nothing at all. His strength is in his subtleties, he doesn’t hammer the message through but rather plants a seed and gives it water. I would argue that no one is making soul-searching passion films better than Barry Jenkins right now. The film is presented in a non-linear structure, which I wasn’t sure worked at first, but soon found myself adjusting to. In retrospect I think it was the right choice for the style of narrative. Clementine "Tish" Rivers (KiKi Layne) and Alonzo "Fonny" Hunt (Stephan James) have been friends their whole lives, and begin a romantic relationship when they are older. It is the early 1970s, and they struggle to find a place to live as most New York City landlords refuse to rent apartments to black people. They eventually find a place in a warehouse in the process of being converted to loft apartments; Levy, the Jewish landlord (played by Dave Franco), agrees to rent it to them at a reasonable rate because he enjoys seeing couples who are in love, regardless of their race.That night, Tish is harassed by a man while shopping at a mostly white grocery store. When he begins to assault her, Fonny physically throws the man out of the store. A white policeman nearby, Officer Bell (Ed Skrein), witnesses the incident and attempts to arrest Fonny, but reluctantly lets him go when the white woman who runs the grocery store vouches for them and calls Bell out for his racism. Fonny is later arrested and accused of raping a woman named Victoria Rogers. Although it would have been nearly impossible for him to have traveled from the scene of the crime to the apartment where he was arrested in the amount of time between the rape and the arrest, the case against Fonny is considered strong due to Officer Bell's testimony, in which he claims to have seen Fonny fleeing the scene, and Victoria having identified Fonny in a lineup as her rapist. Tish, as well as Fonny's friend Daniel Carty (Brian Tyree Henry), were with him at the time of the rape, but his alibi is not considered reliable due to Tish's romantic relationship with Fonny and Daniel's previous conviction for grand theft auto (the result of a plea bargain after being arrested for marijuana possession). Tish visits Fonny in jail as he awaits trial, and reveals to him that she is pregnant with their baby. Fonny is excited to be a father, but is saddened by the fact that his child might be born with him behind bars. Later, Tish tells her parents, Sharon and Joseph, and sister, Ernestine, about her pregnancy. Though worried for her, Tish's family is supportive and decide to invite Fonny's family over to share the news. Frank, Fonny's father, is excited about the pregnancy. However, Fonny's highly religious mother declares the child to be a sin due to being conceived out of wedlock, and rants about how Tish and her child are damned. As Mrs. Hunt begins to leave with her daughters in disgust after Frank hits her, Sharon reminds her that she has just condemned her own grandchild, leaving her emotionally distraught as she is escorted away. In a bar, Frank and Joseph discuss how the former is worried about paying for a child and Fonny's legal expenses, but Joseph convinces him that they will be able to provide for their grandchild the same way they provided for their children. After tracking Victoria to her native Puerto Rico, Sharon travels there to plead with her to change her testimony. Sharon attempts to convince Victoria that she made a mistake when she identified Fonny as her rapist, but Victoria refuses. When Sharon questions whether Victoria could have seen her rapist's face in the dark, Victoria says the police told her to identify Fonny in a line-up, and she did so. When Sharon gently touches her, Victoria begins to scream, attracting the attention of her neighbors, forcing Sharon to leave. Discouraged by the seeming hopelessness of his case and the constant trial delays, Fonny eventually accepts a plea deal. In the last scene of the film, Tish and the child, named Alonzo, Jr., after his father, are visiting Fonny in prison. They all share a dinner together from the vending machines, while looking forward to Fonny's eventual release. The lack of happy ending speaks volumes and I wonder whether this hindered it’s performance at the box office and at the awards. However, it makes it all the more real. There is nothing extraordinary about the story in many respects because it’s a scenario that has happened time and time again. Jenkins’ matter of fact approach allows the audience to reflect, which is far more powerful than to provoke or to preach. The story is an adaptation of the book written by the great James Baldwin and Jenkins captures the essence and the idea and point laid out by the title - ‘IF Beeale Street Could Talk’ - perfectly. To bring the words to life, Jenkins and cinematographer James Laxton looked at the work of Harlem artist Roy DeCarava. DeCarava received early critical acclaim for his photography, initially engaging and imaging the lives of African Americans and jazz musicians in the communities where he lived and worked. Over a career that spanned nearly six decades, DeCarava came to be known as a founder in the field of black and white fine art photography, advocating for an approach to the medium based on the core value of an individual, subjective creative sensibility, which was separate and distinct from the social documentary style of his predecessors. It translates perfectly with Baldwin’s words with his book The Sweet Flypaper of Life, a pictorial narrative of family life in Harlem published in 1955, is clearly the main source of inspiration. While the film received critical acclaim, the lack of hype bothered me. It’s a stunning piece of work that I believe will become recognised as a modern masterpiece in the near future.