If Beale Street Could Talk 2019

    This film is based on a novel by James Baldwin published in 2006.  Alonzo ‘Fonny’ Hunt and Tish Rivers are sweethearts.  Fonny is in jail and he has been arrested for a crime that he did not commit?  The victim was a Puerto Rican woman but she has gone back to her home country and she did not identify Fonny as the perpetrator.  Officer Bell has testified that he saw Fonny running from the crime scene.  Fonny was not in that location, he was with a friend and the friend will testify that they were together.  Tish and her family are trying to get together enough money for someone to travel to Puerto Rico and interview the woman.  Tish’s mother Sharon Rivers invites Fonny’s family to their home to talk about Tish and Fonny.  This meeting does not go well?

      I thought this film would have been easier to follow without flashbacks?  The setting is in the 1970’s and it’s sad to say that this story could also have happened in 2019.  In almost 50 years and there has not been enough change!!  It seems the most common complaint about the film is that it is dull?  It does move slowly along.  The actual Beale Street is in Memphis, Tennessee.  It is often described as a poor imitation of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)    

     

119 min, Drama directed by Barry Jenkins with KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Teyonah Parris, Colman Domingo, Ethan Barrett, Milanni Mines, Ebony Obsidian, Dominique Thorne, Michael Beach, Aunjanue Ellis, Diego Luna, Ed Skrein, Emily rios, Pedro Pascal.

Note:  Imdb 7.2 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 95% critic 70% audience, Roger Ebert 4* Odie Henderson, The Guardian 5* Mark Kermode, Metacritic 87 out of 100 with 53 critics 7.1 out of 10 with 102 user scores, RollingStone 4 1/2* out of 5* Peter Travers, The Independent 2* out of 5* Geoffrey Macnab, Common Sense Media age 15+ 4* out of 5* (4* positive, 4* role models, 2* violence, 4* sex, 4* language, 3* drinking, drugs & smoking) Sandie Angulo Chen, Amazon 3.8* out of 5* with 659 reviews.

Amazon gives the novel 4.5* out of 5* with 246 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in New York City and Manhattan, New York.  Tish works at a perfume counter and the name Deux Soeurs is displayed.  This is not a parfumerie but Deux Soeurs, LLC is credited as the film’s copyright holder. The first trailer was released on August 2, 2018.  This date would have been a birthday for  novelist James Baldwin, he would've been 94 years old but he died from cancer on December 1, 1987.

Oscar Awards 2019: Regina King, Best Supporting Actress; Nicholas Britell Best Original Music Score; Barry Jenkins, Best Adapted Screenplay.