Writer-director, Barry Jenkins, winner of the 2017 Oscar for Best Picture, you know, from the epic La La Land-Moonlight mishap...
Well, Barry Jenkins adapted James Baldwin's novel, If Beale Street Could Talk.
Starring KiKi Layne as Tish, a young pregnant black woman in 1970's New York, who is forced to battle injustice when her lover Fonny, played by Stephan James (the guy from Homecoming, Selma and many other movies) is falsely accused of rape.
If Beale Street Could Talk attempts to tackle heavy-hitting topics like race, racism, religion and sexism, while incorporating moments of bittersweet humor. To me, it fell very short of being a captivating "must-see".
Its sheer length, one hour and fifty-nine minutes (not including previews) felt unbearable at times. Scenes felt like on-going monologues that repeated the same point, ad nauseam. Moments of silence went on for what felt like a century.
This film was undoubtedly beautiful from cast to costume to cinematography, but the love story between Tish and Fonny felt more like a series of never ending, heavy breathing and epically long gazes that made me look around the audience to see if anyone else felt this was beyond unnecessary.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, this film received a very positive "Tamtometer" score from critics of 94%, and an "Audience Score" of 69% (meaning 69% of Rotten Tomatoes users gave this a rating of 3.5 stars or higher). So, perhaps I am in the minority, but out of the four friends I watched with, one loved it (AKA tears were shed), one hated it (AKA left half-way through), one was indifferent and one (myself) didn't like it but needed to see it through.
If Beale Street Could Talk is up for three Academy Awards:
Best Supporting Actress: Regina King
Best Original Score: Nicholas Britell
Best Adapted Screenplay: Barry Jenkins
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