If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
Country: US
Technical: col 119m
Director: Barry Jenkins
Cast: KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King
Synopsis:
1970s New York: childhood sweethearts Tish and Fonny are about to wed when a false accusation of rape lands him in jail. The families struggle to pay for legal representation, but, as with so many cases the police and D.A.'s office are complicit in seeing that 'injustice be done'.
Review:
Institutional racism on a scale so shocking one might think the film were set in the 1950s is the subject of James Baldwin's novel, which equates the eponymous New Orleans street with the unvarying lot of every negro. What is significant, of course, about this tale of miscarried justice, is that there is no happy ending: that is the white man's preserve. At odds with this sober theme, Jenkins again deploys a rich colour scheme and a complex musical soundscape while re-ordering events so that we are introduced to them piecemeal and are never allowed to forget how the lovers were and what they have lost. A little repetitious and unvarying in tone and pace, but written and acted with great finesse and compassion.
Country: US
Technical: col 119m
Director: Barry Jenkins
Cast: KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King
Synopsis:
1970s New York: childhood sweethearts Tish and Fonny are about to wed when a false accusation of rape lands him in jail. The families struggle to pay for legal representation, but, as with so many cases the police and D.A.'s office are complicit in seeing that 'injustice be done'.
Review:
Institutional racism on a scale so shocking one might think the film were set in the 1950s is the subject of James Baldwin's novel, which equates the eponymous New Orleans street with the unvarying lot of every negro. What is significant, of course, about this tale of miscarried justice, is that there is no happy ending: that is the white man's preserve. At odds with this sober theme, Jenkins again deploys a rich colour scheme and a complex musical soundscape while re-ordering events so that we are introduced to them piecemeal and are never allowed to forget how the lovers were and what they have lost. A little repetitious and unvarying in tone and pace, but written and acted with great finesse and compassion.
Country: US
Technical: col 119m
Director: Barry Jenkins
Cast: KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King
Synopsis:
1970s New York: childhood sweethearts Tish and Fonny are about to wed when a false accusation of rape lands him in jail. The families struggle to pay for legal representation, but, as with so many cases the police and D.A.'s office are complicit in seeing that 'injustice be done'.
Review:
Institutional racism on a scale so shocking one might think the film were set in the 1950s is the subject of James Baldwin's novel, which equates the eponymous New Orleans street with the unvarying lot of every negro. What is significant, of course, about this tale of miscarried justice, is that there is no happy ending: that is the white man's preserve. At odds with this sober theme, Jenkins again deploys a rich colour scheme and a complex musical soundscape while re-ordering events so that we are introduced to them piecemeal and are never allowed to forget how the lovers were and what they have lost. A little repetitious and unvarying in tone and pace, but written and acted with great finesse and compassion.