Oscars 2019: Review - If Beale Street Could Talk

Nominated for 3 Oscars, including Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay


If Beale Street Could Talk is both the follow up to director Barry Jenkins' critically acclaimed indie darling Moonlight and also one of the most cruelly snubbed films of the 2019 awards season. For those who are unaware, this film was not nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars and quite frankly, that is an absolute disgrace, hence my stance on saying fuck it and just reviewing this film anyway, because it deserves all the love and praise we can heap on it. It's an adaptation of the book of the same name by James Baldwin (which I haven't read but am now eager to), about a young couple, Tish and Fonny. Fonny is in prison for circumstances that aren't explained to us until later in the film but feel sadly predictable and while in there, Tish discovers she is pregnant with their child. The narrative weaves its way between their exquisite past, a tale of them falling deeper and deeper in love with each other, and their inescapable present, where each are in a life which they have no control over anymore. I'd be lying if I said it was a narrative of any real surprises but Jenkins isn't aiming to make that film, presumably because the book isn't that either. Instead, he deals in examining extents, showing in simultaneously beautiful and heart breaking detail how deeply love runs between Tish and Fonny. Even with that said, this film is full of hugely significant events, although all of those tie back into extent, by pushing and pulling Tish and Fonny's relationship (and the hearts of the audience) to see if it will break. The story is beautiful and I think the way editors Nat Sanders and Joi McMillion weave those narratives together is absolutely superb stuff.

Even in acting, where Regina King is basically guaranteed an Oscar, it feels like so much has been overlooked, not least the two actors who play Tish and Fonny. Kiki Layne especially, the actress palying Tish, is mightily impressive. This is her feature film debut which feels like something of a miracle considering the gentle honesty she brings to the role. Perhaps it's a situation similar to Timothee Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name where I only feel this because I'd seen nothing from them before but Layne is not on screen here, only Tish, a doubly impressive task considering that she is the focal character for the audience and a single slip up could distance us from her instantly. The role of Fonny is slightly smaller but with it, Stephan James also crafts magic. From the gentle loving of his eyes alone, he should be earning awards across the board but maybe that's too subtle work for most. As far as I see it though, the way he can say a million soulful and sombre things with one look on his face is absolutely superb. Regina King though, as I mentioned at the top, has been the one picking up plaudits to an embarrassing degree and I would be lying if I said she didn't deserve them. As Tish's mother, the title of "supporting actress" is ironically appropriate, her character having to deal with much of the collateral that Tish and Fonny's decision to bring a child into this world causes and while she gets many a powerful moment, it's the smaller moments that make King's performance shine. In his review, Mark Kermode pointed out a slight shoulder movement that she does that tells you everything you need to know and while I missed it on my first viewing, I caught it on the second. If powerful subleties like that aren't great acting, it's hard to tell what is. Quickly, it's also important to add that literally everyone else in the cast is brilliant too, from Bryan Tyree Henry to Dave Franco and even Emma Stone's boyfriend from La La Land, Finn Wittrock. Great job to everyone on that front!

Despite having gone on quite a bit in the previous paragraph, I still find myself worried that I just won't be able to talk about all that I adore in Beale Street, so overflowing with genuine creative care is it. I suppose what I need to talk about as soon as possible is the score from Nicholas Britell, who also worked on Moonlight. Yet again, he has created a score that is beautiful beyond belief. I'm not someone who understands music, so I can't analyse it like I would a film but I know when music works and when I get goosebumps just thinking about a piece of music, that means it's pretty damn effective. A previous Britell track called "The Middle of the World" has been one of my favourite tracks from a film score for a while now but with "Eden", I think he may have surpassed himself. Really, I can only be grateful that the score at least wasn't snubbed of an Oscar nomination. Also returning from Moonlight is James Laxton doing cinematography. What interests me about his work here compared to that of Moonlight is that it is simultaneously similar and quite different. There's still a focus on lots of shallow focus but the tendency for the camera to roam is lesser and with Beale Street, there's an emphasis on these stunning shots where characters stare straight on into the camera. It allows for emotion to radiate through the actors into the audience, like I was saying earlier, using the most delicate of delicate shot/reverse shots to make us forget we're watching a film, not real life. Both those things feed into the delicate witchcraft of a poetry that this film casts, at least on me. There's a rhythm, a rhyme, an elegantly composed balance to the world that is woozy, helped not least by actual quotes from Baldwin's novel which do seem to be honest to God poetry in prose. It's a cinematic experience unlike anything since... Well, Moonlight

In case you haven't worked out yet, I really do love this film. Perhaps the moody lyricism won't be to everyone's tastes but it may surprise you can so if you're reading this, I urge you to go out and see it. Unlike certain films in the current awards season *cough* Bohemian Rhapsody *cough*, it feels like a work of art, made by an entire fleet of people who really care. It's for that reason that I give If Beale Street Could Talk a

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Top 7- Reasons Johnny Depp is a piece of shit

Review- Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip

Do You Feel Like A Hero Yet? - The Last of Us and Violence in Context