If Beale Street Could Talk

2018 movie that is not a Best Picture nominee

Rating: 16/20

Plot: 22-year-old Fonny has knocked up 19-year-old girlfriend Tish. When he's arrested for a crime he didn't commit, their families have to deal with it.

I've mentioned the guy who works across the hall from me, a black man who I desperately want to fool into thinking I'm cooler than I am. So far, it's not worked very well although he does laugh at my jokes. He's got the best laugh. Anyway, a couple of months ago, we were talking about movies and both picked what we thought had a chance to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. His pick was either Boy Erased or the other one with Steve Carell, something I think is called Boy Inebriated or something like that. I haven't seen either one of those and don't really plan on it. My pick was one I felt was almost cheating--picking a follow-up to Best Picture winner Moonlight. Or did La La Land win that year? I can never keep that straight. My pick wasn't even nominated, and even though I hadn't gotten around to seeing it yet, I was surprised. Now that I've actually seen it, I'm even more surprised.

Barry Jenkins is a maestro, and in this James Baldwin adaptation, he's conducting a smooth jazz that just hits all my sweet spots. He weaves together the characters' presents with flashbacks outlining a budding and very believable romance, and he does it in a way that brings out a variety of emotions. During those flashbacks where we see Tish and Fonny in various stages of their budding romance, you just feel that love. It bleeds through the screen. You fall in love with the way these characters have fallen in love with each other--the way she looks at him, the way he longs for her, the way they have sex, the way he is so gentle with her when they're getting ready to have sex, the way they struggle, the way they celebrate together, the way they just become one on the screen. And that makes it more devastating when they're separated by a sheet of glass. Jenkins gives us imagery and performances that are capable of filling the audience with joy, of making the audience angry at injustices both big and small, of making the audience as anxious as Regina King's character as she readies herself with make-up and a wig in front of a mirror, of shocking us with the lack of empathy a character can have for another because of ingrained religious beliefs. It's just a movie that makes you feel. You feel it more than you watch it, and it sits with you for hours and hours after the credits have rolled.

Jenkins does a lot with color here, and the camera work, while rarely flashy, always seems to be just exactly where it's supposed to be for as long as it needs to be there. Just as important to the visuals, however, is the score. It's a gorgeous one, fragile echoing horns and yearning strings. The score is from Nicholas Britell, the same guy who did Moonlight.

The ensemble cast is great, nearly perfect individual melodies weaving in and out of the narratives. Kiki Layne and Stephan James are entirely believable, but their romance is also one that seems less like a movie and more like a dream you've stumbled into or some sort of fairy tale. Brian Tyree Henry pops into this for about ten minutes and hits every note so well in a scene that's a roller coaster of subtle emotional shifts that you might wind up believing he is the best actor on the planet. Regina King really is as good as advertised, and without reminding myself who else is up for the Best Supporting Actress award, I'll say that she's definitely deserving. I like the two fathers played by Colman Domingo and Michael Beach, too. They all collaborate so well with Jenkins, sharing secrets with the audience through both their dialogue and through all sorts of things that aren't said at all. Just lovely performances.

So many standout scenes. I think I was hooked from the get-go with one of the fancier shots and the accompanying music. A scene where the two families get together so that one can share the news of the pregnancy is another stand-out, including a pair of moments that actually made me laugh out loud. So much smoke during a more ostentatious scene spiraling around a character's artwork, all the complimentary colors, a scene with imaginary appliances in a future apartment, a celebration in the middle of a dreamlike street, smashed tomatoes on a brick wall, a scene on a subway preceding a sex scene, that sex scene and a brief shot of a record playing, Stephan James stripping to his underpants, the aforementioned scene with Regina King and a mirror, the scene with Brian Tyree Henry.

I've given both Moonlight and this a 16/20, and I'm wondering if I'd raise those scores if I saw them again. Maybe I'll give Moonlight another viewing soon.

Again, I can't believe that this wasn't nominated for Best Picture over A Star Is Born, Black Panther, and Bohemian Rhapsody. It just doesn't make any sense.