New York, 1970s. The lives of an African-American couple, Tish and Fonny, are torn apart when Fonny is falsely accused of rape. While he is awaiting trial, Tish discovers that she is pregnant.
Written and directed by Barry Jenkins, who wrote and directed 'Moonlight' (the 2017 Best Picture Oscar winner), and based on a book by James Baldwin, this movie had the potential to be a powerful examination of racism and injustice. Unfortunately, it doesn't go anywhere new, and goes there very slowly.
The themes explored in If Beale Street Could Talk are not new - movies have been made of race-based injustice in the US since the 1960s (as have songs). I was hoping for a new angle on it but Barry Jenkins seems to have assumed that his audience has never watched any of those previous movies or even knows that such injustice or racism existed (or exists), such is the preachiness of the film.
Not only unoriginal, it is predictable. Nothing comes as a surprise.
Then there is the fact that every scene is drawn out to the max, plus there are countless scenes that add nothing to the movie. Take out all this padding and the movie would only be about 40 minutes long, so you can see why it is there.
Character depth and thus engagement is limited. We learn as much as we need to know about the characters in order to inform the plot, and that's it. Some of the lesser characters, especially Sharon, Tish's mom, are interesting and could easily provide the engagement to sustain the movie but, like the main characters, their characters are not fleshed out at all and they just serve to propel the plot (at its glacial pace).
Disappointing.
Written and directed by Barry Jenkins, who wrote and directed 'Moonlight' (the 2017 Best Picture Oscar winner), and based on a book by James Baldwin, this movie had the potential to be a powerful examination of racism and injustice. Unfortunately, it doesn't go anywhere new, and goes there very slowly.
The themes explored in If Beale Street Could Talk are not new - movies have been made of race-based injustice in the US since the 1960s (as have songs). I was hoping for a new angle on it but Barry Jenkins seems to have assumed that his audience has never watched any of those previous movies or even knows that such injustice or racism existed (or exists), such is the preachiness of the film.
Not only unoriginal, it is predictable. Nothing comes as a surprise.
Then there is the fact that every scene is drawn out to the max, plus there are countless scenes that add nothing to the movie. Take out all this padding and the movie would only be about 40 minutes long, so you can see why it is there.
Character depth and thus engagement is limited. We learn as much as we need to know about the characters in order to inform the plot, and that's it. Some of the lesser characters, especially Sharon, Tish's mom, are interesting and could easily provide the engagement to sustain the movie but, like the main characters, their characters are not fleshed out at all and they just serve to propel the plot (at its glacial pace).
Disappointing.