Provokr Pick: If Beale Street Could Talk
From the Writer/Director of Moonlight
After changing the game with Moonlight, all eyes have been on writer/director Barry Jenkins to see what the auteur filmmaker is working on next. The answer is If Beale Street Could Talk, an adaptation of the 1974 novel by James Baldwin.
Baldwin was famous for his writings on race relations in America, and his life was recently immortalized in the feature documentary, I Am Not Your Negro. The original novel of If Beale Street Could Talk is remembered for its musings on race, but on having those circumstances be an enabler for the story, rather than its crux. The story is about the ties that bind family and community, particularly in the urban black America.
Barry Jenkins blew us all away with Moonlight, the story of young love in the forgotten corner of Florida, and audiences are justifiably skeptical as to whether this new project can live up to its pedigree, especially considering its revered source material. However, if anyone can do it, it’s Jenkins, and we’ll follow him to the ends of the Earth if that’s where he chooses to lead us.
The film stars KiKi Layne (Captive State) and Stephan James (Race) as the young couple, and their chemistry, at least based on the trailer, is going to be a core tenet of this film’s inevitable critical acclaim. The supporting cast includes big names like Regina King (The Boondocks), Ed Skrein (Deadpool), and Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead).
Like Moonlight, Beale Street seeks to capture a snapshot of Americana, in all its beauty and tarnish; without judgment, but with compassion and empathy. Barry Jenkins is one of the most prominently American directors, and he achieves this ubiquity, not with empty gestures like flag-waving celebrations of militarism, but by looking at people, eye to eye, and sharing their stories.
If Beale Street Could Talk is in theaters now.
