Review of If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) by Greg C — 13 Jan 2019
Deliberate. Languid. Beautiful. "If Beale Street Could Talk" is reaffirmation that Barry Jenkins is a masterful director. Here, he shows an honor and love of the words of James Baldwin. While in other movies, voice over is a lazy way of filling in the story, in IBSCT it is to be forgiven because of the respect it is giving to the source material.
Even in the regular dialog amongst our characters, such as our leads play touchingly by Kiki Lane (Tish) and Stephen James (Fonny), there is a poetry. The story takes us back to a time that I for one remember vividly.
And the messages are timeless. A hail of praise deserves to be heaped on the ensemble. My standout in the role of Tish's father James is the actor Colman Domingo. The way James stepped up at the time of his daughter's pregnancy, while the Fonny was in jail awaiting trial, touched my heart.
James is a man with a big laugh. I think I had him for an uncle.
This review of If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) was written by Greg C on 13 Jan 2019.
If Beale Street Could Talk has generally received positive reviews.
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