If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

[baumer]

Discuss

[Ezen Baklattan]

I caught this at TIFF, but my god this is an absolutely gorgeous, heartbreaking tale. I may have liked it even more than Moonlight.

 

Special props for Jenkins for how RICH and beautiful the design is. Especially since this isn’t the kind of movie that gets this kind of detail and support.

 

So very, very recommended, and possibly my favorite movie of the year.

[The Panda]

Gorgeous movie, I was tearing up in the first scene from how well the score swelled the scene playing out.  Really loved it, slow moving, poignant take on the hardships, injustice, joy and love that plays out in an impoverished minority community.  Gives voice to the people who often have none, speaks to the title,

[DAJK]

Saw this on then 12th or 13th and have been meaning to post my thoughts. Will get around to it probably tomorrow morning.

[DAJK]

Shit I forgot to post what I thought lol

 

It hits this really narrow balance between seeming more experimental than Moonlight, yet also more publicly accessible as a mainstream film. It doesn't follow a typical 3-act structure, but you don't notice it when you're watching it, as your interest in the characters is piqued from the very beginning. I actually heard someone compare the plotting in this movie to Gus Van Sant films... but I cannot attest to that since I have not seen any of his work. 

 

I have not read the book that it is adapted from, but I'm certain the filmmakers remained relatively loyal to the source material. The pacing and the plotting actually does read like a novel at times, and it seems like a deliberate choice not to throw away the pacing and plotting of the source material in favor of a typical Hollywood 3-act structure. 

 

It isn't however an easy film to 'watch', not regarding the content, but rather in terms of keeping pace with the conflict within its characters. I think this also has to do with the plotting, which at times felt very ponderous and unfocused, but I do have a hard time thinking that it wasn't intentional. You can't just "watch" the movie, but you have to experience it, and I think that is where I came up a bit short. After the first 20 minutes or so, I noticed subtle changes in the characters to which I couldn't understand where they came from. Discussing the movie with one of my professors later, I brought this up, but she referenced moments in the film that would have had caused these changes in the characters. They were subtle and I did miss them, but it made sense once it was explained. However, after the first portion of the film, I stopped passively watching it and started taking it in more actively. 

 

I didn't include this in my top 10 of the year partly due to how unconventional it felt as I was watching it, and because of that I have a hard time ranking it among other movies in terms of how much I "liked" them. It's overall a great movie, and one that I think people can enjoy whether they be a critic or just a general audience member wanting to see a good drama. You have to engage with the movie, but if you do, the movie rewards you by engaging you as an audience just as much. 

[filmlover]

Lovely little movie that packs a quietly powerful punch and is filled with nothing but authenticity. Barry Jenkins definitely knows how to set a mood for the viewer to get swept up in. Also, the most beautiful score of the year. Kiki Layne and Stephen James (put him in every movie please) are magnificent, and the rest of the cast does well (especially the always terrific Regina King in another Jenkins-directed parental performance). It’s a lush follow-up from the director that proves Moonlight was no fluke. A-

[Plain Old Tele]

Barry Jenkins is the real deal. My word.

[Alpha]

Friendship ended with Giacchino. After this, Moonlight and Vice, Nicholas Britell is my favorite composer working today.

 

A

Edited January 20, 2019 by Alpha

[Webslinger]

If Beale Street Could Talk is an exquisite and deceptively simple tale of love that resonates with compassion, righteous indignation, and – ultimately – tenderness. Writer-director Barry Jenkins already had a tall order ahead of him in crafting a follow-up to his masterful breakthrough in Moonlight, and he made that order even taller by tackling James Baldwin’s sublime but not easily translated prose. What Jenkins accomplishes here is extremely impressive in how it maintains fidelity to Baldwin’s words while also feeling distinctly cinematic; KiKi Layne’s use of Baldwin’s prose as narration feels natural rather than tacked-on, and it’s matched with keen visual representations of the beautifully-composed language. Just as Moonlight was so good at evoking feelings of longing, intimacy, and self-acceptance, Beale Street evokes feelings of love and such an unmistakable aura surrounding the bond between Tish and Fonny that it’s tough not to be moved by the raw power of their scenes together. While much of the awards attention has fallen to Regina King’s fine performance as Tish’s mother, KiKi Layne emerges as the cast standout as Tish. Whether she’s reciting Baldwin’s prose as dialogue or communicating deep nonverbal information through her facial expressions or body language, Layne makes Tish feel vivid and quietly indomitable; even in a year that has had an abundance of breakthrough performances from relatively young actresses, Layne’s work ranks among the best. Her co-star Stephan James doesn’t get quite as much to do as Fonny – given that he spends a significant chunk of his screen time behind a glass window – but he makes the most of it with charming, soulful work and near-effortless chemistry with Layne; these two are so good together that it’s all-too-easy to buy into the love that shapes and carries the narrative. King, like much of the rest of the supporting ensemble, makes the most of limited scenes in a heartwarming performance in which she wields maternal tenderness and compassion to highly potent effect. Like Moonlight before it, If Beale Street Could Talk feels almost as much like an experience as it does a film; while all the factors that went into making it are top-notch, it’s really letting this film wash over you and seeing what feelings it awakens in you that makes it such a special accomplishment.

 

A

 

Stray Thoughts:

- Nicholas Britell's score is beautiful. Can't believe I slept on his Moonlight work in 2016 despite loving that film, and I shan't make the same mistake on my personal ballot this year.

 

- I loved the color coordination of the sets and costumes. Combined with the terrific cinematography, this is one gorgeous-looking film.

 

- I'm... just... flabbergasted that this isn't somehow a much bigger player on the awards scene. Like, it's not quite as great as Moonlight, but I dare anyone to watch this film and Vice and tell me that the latter is really worthier of being Annapurna's top awards dog - and I say this as someone who liked Vice quite a bit. The acting is terrific, the screenplay faced a high degree of difficulty in adapting a wandering narrative, the production values are excellent, and Jenkins pulls it all together without forcing anything into place or abandoning subtlety. 

[GeneralKong]

Just like with Moonlight, it's a film that I cannot imagine watching outside of a theater...and I mean that in a good way. 

 

A

Edited January 25, 2019 by GeneralKong