If Beale Street Could Talk

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What a year for movies this has been, and it feels good to be ending on a high note. Based on the James Baldwin novel of the same name, “If Beale Street Could Talk” is a beautifully acted and painfully real look at the struggles many African Americans face. The fact that this story is as believable today as it was in 1974, should give us all pause. If you have never read a Baldwin novel, you should (I recommend “Go Tell it on the Mountain” or “Giovanni’s Room”). He writes with such lyric grace and fearceness, both with humor and anger, all of which show up here. This is the simple story of two young people in love, Tish and Fonny (played by KiKi Layne and Stephan James, respectively). It is also the story of their families and what they will do to stand up for the ones they love. This is an intimate portrait of two families, but it is really a portrait of a mother, her daughter, and the man she loves. A film like this stands or falls on the backs of its actors. And this was a fantastic cast. I had never seen Layne before but she was really the centerpiece of the story. Her character’s relationships with Fonny and her mother (the always brilliant Regina King) are the driving force of the film. It was critical that she was able to handle the complexity of emotions the role requied, and she absolutely was. James was equally as good. The two had great chemistry together and looked genuinely like two people in love. But the real beauty of the film is its story. Never once did it hit a false note; it was neither too melodramatic nor too saccharine. Every single step along the process felt completely real to me. It did not go for pat, easy answers. Like much of Baldwin’s work, it was sweet, and poetic, and a defiant scream into the darkness.