if beale street could talk james baldwin movie

Ostensibly this is a story of love – the love between a young man (Stephan James) and a young woman (Kiki Layne), between a mother and her child, that of fathers bending the rules to better those around them, or sisters standing up and refusing to see heads bowed in shame. This isn’t to take anything away from the previous film, save to say there are fewer hooks in Beale for general audiences to hold onto as allegiances sway and easy answers are eschewed. This is a film far more challenging in some ways than his Best Picture winner Moonlight as there’s a more overt political underpinning here, with characters behaving in downright appalling fashion at one moment and exhibiting supreme humanity the next. It’s this refusal of Baldwin’s writing to either vindicate or excoriate his characters that’s the most challenging to translate to the big screen, and it’s here that Jenkin’s gifts come to the fore. Yet above all, there’s a sense of family that forms a deeply held bond, one that transcends the challenges of the moment and deeply entwines all involved.

Yet the protagonists are not without flaws, each a richly drawn portrayal of individuals who do not fall nicely into specific categories, be they moral or legal. The poetic work talked of particular injustices, where cycles of systemic unfairness and disproportionality continue to affect marginalized communities. Barry Jenkins’ latest film is dedicated to “Jimmy”, aka James Baldwin, author of the challenging, complex and deeply moving novel If Beale Street Could Talk.

If beale street could talk james baldwin movie