Medicine for Melancholy 2008

     This film is about twenty-four hours in the tentative relationship of two young San Franciscans and they are also dealing with the conundrum of being a minority in a rapidly gentrifying city.  The premise of a man and woman rushing through all the phases of falling in love in one twenty-four hour period with the backdrop of a great city is a popular one.  An awkward introduction in the light of day after a drunken one-night stand leads to an inauspicious real date spent biking and cabbing around San Francisco.  The couple spend long moments of non-verbal connecting that is tinged by an overt sadness.  In the back of their minds is the feeling that this short time period will end and they may never see each other again??

     
     Shortly after completing the film, a friend suggested to writer and director Barry Jenkins to watch Damien Chazelle’s film, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (2009).  It is another black and white contemporary film that was gaining momentum among the indie circuit.  Ironically, a friend of Damien Chazelle's told him to watch Medicine for Melancholy (2008) shortly after completing his film.  Both directors were up for several Academy Awards in 2017 for their films Moonlight (2016) and La La Land (2016).  They only discovered this after speaking to each other during The Hollywood Report's Oscar's Roundtable.  4* (I liked this movie)

Special Note:  This is the directorial debut of Barry Jenkins.  The shooting schedule for this low budget film was only 13 days!!  Each song in the soundtrack appears in the credits with a still frame from the part of the movie where it was used.  One of the filming locations was the Knockout Room La Lengua District, San Francisco, California.

148 min, Drama directed and written by Barry Jenkins with Wyatt Cenac, Tracey Heggins, Elizabeth Acker, Melissa Bisagni, DeMorge Brown, Powell DeGrange, Chida EWmeka, John Friedberg, Dana Julius, Ondine Kilker, Erin Klenow, Phoebe ChiChing Kwok, Tommi Avicolli Mecca Adam Moskowitz, Jennifer Sanchez.

Note:  Imdb 6.7* out of 10* with 2010 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 84% with 37 critics 65% with 1164 audience scores, Metacritic 63 out of 100 with 13 critics 6.4* out of 10* birth 17 user scores, Roger Ebert 3 1/2*, Slant Magazine 2* out of 4* Joseph Jon Lanthier, Letterboxd 3.3* out of 5*, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 91 reviews.