The story of If Beale Street could talk reads: “Set in early-1970s Harlem, If Beale Street Could Talk is a timeless and moving love story of both a couple’s unbreakable bond and the African-American family’s empowering embrace, as told through the eyes of 19-year-old Tish Rivers (screen newcomer KiKi Layne). “A daughter and wife-to-be, Tish vividly recalls the passion, respect and trust that have connected her and her artist fiancé Alonzo Hunt, who goes by the nickname Fonny (Stephan James). “Friends since childhood, the devoted couple dream of a future together but their plans are derailed when Fonny is arrested for a crime he did not commit. “Through the unique intimacy and power of cinema, If Beale Street Could Talk honours the author’s prescient words and imagery, charting the emotional currents navigated in an unforgiving and racially biased world as the filmmaker poetically crosses time frames to show how love and humanity endure.”
What are the reviews for If Beale Street Could Talk?
The critics’ consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads: “If Beale Street Could Talk honours its source material with a beautifully filmed adaptation that finds director Barry Jenkins further strengthening his visual and narrative craft.”
The reviews aggregator rates If Beale Street Could Talk at 93 per cent.
NPR’s Monica Castillo wrote: “If Beale Street Could Talk is at once a tribute to love and a call for its defence against racist hatred, all told in an artfully composed tragedy.”
Peter Travers at Rolling Stone gave it a near perfect 4.5 out of five.
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If Beale Street Could Talk: Barry Jenkins’ film is being praised universally by critics (Image: AP)
He said: “Barry Jenkins creates one of the year’s 10 best films by celebrating black love and a human connection that can raise you up and move you to tears.
“Regina King’s performance should finally get her the Oscar she’s deserved for years.”
For TheWrap, Dan Callahan said: “There is a formality to the language here and to the heightened, rather torturously plotted dramatic situations, and so Jenkins wisely tries to put everything across visually as simply as possible.”
Odie Henderson gave the film a perfect four out of four stars for RogerEbert.com.
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Henderson wrote: “Jenkins’ decision to let the original storyteller live and breathe throughout If Beale Street Can Talk is a wise one.”
Time Out’s Philip De Semlyen gave it four out of five stars, and wrote: “Barry Jenkins channels all of James Baldwin’s lyricism and anger into a story of love and injustice that burns with a gentle flame, occasionally blazing into a white heat.”
For NPR, Glen Weldon wrote: “You’ve never seen romantic love depicted on screen with such lyrical and gorgeous intensity, or systemic injustice brought to such vivid and enraging life.”
He added: “Film classes will be taught about Jenkins’ use of colour.”
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If Beale Street Could Talk: The cast and director have been lauded for their nuanced performance (Image: AP)
David Edelstein gave it a glowing review, saying: “Jenkins has cemented his style: lush romance on top, hyper-realistic despair just beneath the surface.”
AV Club’s AA Dowd gave the movie a score of A-, and his review was, as the grade suggests, almost perfect.
Dowd wrote: “If the film lacks Moonlight’s sheer expressive power and primal simplicity, Jenkins is reaching further this time, telling a bigger story than the heartbreak and alienation of one taciturn kid.”
Also praising Jenkins as a filmmaker was the Los Angeles Times’ writer Justin Chang.
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If Beale Street Could Talk: Barry Jenkins’ film is based on the work of James Baldwin (Image: AP)
Chang wrote: “In cutting against the aesthetic grain, Jenkins gently and wisely corrects our vision.
“The passionate glow of this filmmaker’s embrace belongs, quite rightly, to his characters.
“He is generous enough to also extend that embrace to us.”
If Beale Street Could Talk is out in UK cinemas February 8, 2019.
