Writer James Baldwin’s 1974 novel is lovingly adapted into a beautifully filmed love story about a Harlem couple in the 1970s. The last feature director Barry Jenkins made won the Oscar for Best Picture so expectations are understandably high. If Beale Street Could Talk is about Tish Rivers (KiKi Layne), newly engaged to her boyfriend Alonzo Hunt (Stephan James), better known as Fonny. We are presented with scenes that show they grew up together. They have known each other since childhood. This is fashioned as a romance for the ages. However, conflict has entered the sanctity of their lives which threatens to upend everything they hold dear. Fonny has been falsely identified for a crime he didn’t commit. We see Tish visit Fonny in jail to deliver some major news. She is pregnant. Cinematographer James Laxton lingers on faces like they’re masterpieces carved in marble. These images cast a spell that gently invites the viewer to reflect on the disparity between the beauty of their relationship and the ugliness of what has befallen them. Barry Jenkins screenplay is a somber contemplation of a love fret with hardship. There are many elegantly composed scenes that convey a feeling in the absence of dialogue. Indeed the deliberate pace comes at the expense of action.
There is an early moment in Beale Street that tempts the viewer with what might develop into an electrifying ensemble piece. Tish must break the news of her pregnancy to her parents Sharon (Regina King) and Joseph (Colman Domingo) and her sister Ernestine (Teyonah Parris). They are shocked but supportive. Now how to tell Fonny’s family? There’s his religiously sanctimonious mother (Aunjanue Ellis), more easygoing father (Michael Beach), and judgmental sisters (Ebony Obsidian and Dominique Thorne). Sharon invites them over to their home for drinks. Then the verbal fireworks start. It’s a memorable scene. Occasional flashbacks throughout show us how Tish and Fonny’s life was before he was arrested, then contrast it with their lives in the present. Yet nothing matches the sheer drama of the earlier showdown.
If Beale Street Could Talk is compelling in fits and starts. I call those moments Regina King. The actress has been picking up awards left and right for her work. She’s extraordinary. Sharon’s drive to prove her son-in-law’s innocence ultimately necessitates a trip to Puerto Rico. It’s the portrait of a mother who only wants justice and truth. The halcyon days of Tish and Fonny’s romance are idealized with gauzy cinematography highlighting two pretty young people. Fonny is a sculptor and he works amidst cigarette smoke swirling around a piece he’s creating with a saxophone wailing in the background. They gaze longingly at each other and the dreamy display is not unlike the sculpture he’s creating — a precious objet d’art to study and appreciate from afar. A grave injustice underlies their lives and yet there’s no there there. The action, or lack of it, concerns what appear to be in the details. How can the reflective inertia of the rest of the film compete with mother Sharon’s emotional fire? Every time actress King is on screen I was riveted and every time she garners accolades for her achievement, I get it. I simply wish there was more of her.
12-13-18
It’s been 42 years since the last adaptation of A Star is Born. I suppose we were about due. The original script by William A. Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker, and Alan Campbell has proven to have a quality that transcends time as the narrative evolves to suit the tastes of the current generation. The core remains the same. It’s rags-to-riches! It’s got romance! It’s got tragedy! Yes, it’s full of showbiz clichés. That’s because good stories never go out of style, especially one with a charismatic female lead as its central focus. The 30s had Janet Gaynor as an aspiring actress who surpassed a fading movie actor depicted by Fredric March. The 50s transomed the property into a musical as Judy Garland was the ingenue taken under the wing of a former matinée idol played by James Mason. The 70s version had Barbra Streisand as a nightclub singer plucked out of obscurity by a rock star played Kris Kristofferson. Bradley Cooper’s adaptation adheres most closely to this one. The actor directs, writes, produces and acts. Anyone tabulating the years will notice the 90s should have gotten their own rendition. Flash forward to the present and we have Lady Gaga as Ally, a woman who waits tables by day and croons “La Vie en Rose” by night in a drag bar. Bradley Cooper portrays the established artist, Jackson Maine, a country music superstar that performs to sold-out arenas. Jackson stumbles upon Ally’s show while searching for a bar to drink booze.
Hollywood is so steeped in the culture of comic books and sci-fi these days that when a movie comes along that hinges on the various alliances between a clan of a well to do socialites, the occurrence seems almost unique. There was a time when Hollywood used to regularly finance big-budget relationship-based tales. The romantic comedy in particular has a long history of stock characters that the audience can easily identify. We cheer and jeer accordingly. That is the case with Crazy Rich Asians. However, there is a very essential distinction to this account. This is the first major studio offering since The Joy Luck Club to feature a predominately Asian cast. Hard to believe that was 25 years ago. That makes the film significant, but more importantly, it also happens to be incredibly entertaining.
If nothing else, writer and director David Lowery’s new feature is a curiosity. A tale without a distinct narrative to understand so much as to experience. In that respect, this meditation on life is a difficult movie to review. The chronicle is not about events per se, but rather a feeling you appreciate while watching it.
I adore romantic comedies. Good ones, that is. The genre gets such a bad rap nowadays, but when they’re good, they can be transcendent. They capture that most sublime of all human emotions: love. It’s when we, as people are at our most vulnerable. It Happened One Night (1934), Roman Holiday (1953), When Harry Met Sally (1989), The Princess Bride (1987), Notting Hill (1999), 500 Days of Summer (2009): these are my very favorites. We’re talking some of the best movies ever made. Let’s add another title to that growing list of rom-coms: The Big Sick.
