#87: If Beale Street Could Talk

Release Date: December 15th, 2004

Format: DVD

Written by: Barry Jenkins

Directed by: Barry Jenkins

4 Stars

Joyce Carol Oates has a collection of short stories entitled Lovely, Dark, Deep. I think these words perfectly capture the quality of the two Barry Jenkins films I’ve seen, Moonlight (2016) and If Beale Street Could Talk (2018).

Lovely: If Beale Street Could Talk has incredible moments of tenderness and love. The opening shot of the film, a bird’s eye view of our main characters (Tish & Fonny) slowly walking down a paved path holding hands, inexplicably tapped into my emotions. I’m not sure if it was the quality of the light achieved by cinematographer James Laxton or the stunning score from composer Nicholas Britell, but when the two lovers finally reach a clearing and embrace and kiss. Wow. It’s stunning. Jenkins creates magic in moments like these, and he has the wisdom to pause and allow his film to dwell in such small, lovely places. Children in a bathtub, or a held hand, or a glance across a room are momentous to Jenkins’ lens. He understands beauty.

Dark: And he understands that beauty cannot exist without darkness. The son of a drug addicted mother who grew up in abject poverty in Miami, Barry Jenkins knows firsthand the terrible darkness of the human condition. It’s probably what drew him to If Beale Street Could Talk, originally a novel by James Baldwin, who certainly knew the dark heart of humanity as a homosexual man who also grew up poor in 1940s Harlem. This source material explores the pressures of family, of religion and morality and social expectations, of being black in 1970s New York, of being young and pregnant. The love story of Tish & Fonny, that bright light, is at times a small flicker in an expanse of darkness. 

Deep: This is a movie that will get to the marrow of your bones. Jenkins doesn’t have much interest in things flippant or ironic. He is an artist that approaches his art sincerely, with decorum. His themes and his characters’ existences are hallowed. I appreciate his sincerity. It’s a defining quality and it's special. His films are deep films.

And in 2024 we find Barry Jenkins working for Disney on one of their live action adaptations of Lion King, which is fine I suppose. I imagine he’ll do something special with it. And I image the paycheck is more than fine.

But I look forward to his return to more personal works. I look forward to his next lovely, dark, deep vision.