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Beale Street has been a part of my life. As has James Baldwin, the author of the eponymous novel, which was finally adapted to film by the director, Barry Jenkins, in 2018. I grew up in an all-white suburb of Pittsburgh in the seeming tranquility of the Eisenhower ‘50’s. About the only black people I saw were on the “Amos and Andy Show,” and, for sure, no place else on TV, certainly not in the commercials. There was an “understanding,” you see, that I did not understand. James Baldwin’s novels. “Another Country,” “Go Tell it to the Mountain,” (fittingly composed in the Café Flore, in Paris, where I also made a life-changing decision), “Going to Meet the Man,” as well as “Beale Street…” and others, helped improve my understanding of the other side of the veil.
And I have been to the real Beale Street, in Memphis. Ok, a very ersatz version, with the honky-tonks that caters to the tourists. It was childhood leukemia, halfway around the world, that led me to this ersatz version, as I was trying to improve my cultural understanding along a different axis – that of the Arab world.
I was stunned with the movie’s opening – the typed words of James Baldwin that said Beale Street was in New Orleans! Wait a minute, I had to put the movie on pause. With a quick internet search, I found an excellent review that explained that there are many metaphorical “Beale Streets,” in most major American cities, which is why it was no big deal that most of the movie was filmed in Harlem. I’m OK with that.
This is a movie about race relations in America, in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s, coupled with criminal police misconduct. I keep thinking that race relations have improved in America since the days of “Amos and Andy,” and have become more multi-dimensional, which was partially shown in this movie as well. But I wonder if police misconduct has lessened at all; giving the police “qualified immunity” is a wonderful way for the few, who are now much fewer still, to control the many. Remember the pharaohs? I need a grander tomb still.
Jenkins did such a good job in the casting. Stephan James plays Alonzo “Fonny” Hunt, age 22, with thoughts of becoming a sculptor in wood, and Kiki Layne plays Tish Rivers, age 19, who so willingly bequeaths her first time to Fonny. Again and again, I was mesmerized by the ability of Jenkins to capture their faces, just their faces, that conveyed so much. Regina King played Sharon Rivers, Tish’s very understanding and supportive mom, after Tish announced that she is pregnant.
The central theme involves egregious police misconduct. A sleazy white cop, who had a run-in with Fonny earlier, and no doubt considered him “uppity,” for believing he had the right to defend Tish, arrests Fonny on the charge of rape. The rest of the so-called justice system goes along with the inconsistency and absurdities involved in the arrest.
There are some wonderful scenes that I will long remember:
- the meeting of the two families when Tish announces her pregnancy. Fonny’s holy-roller mom is outraged. The respective sisters demonstrate their outrage, and hurl insults, including: “no one would have you, you dried up (expletive).”
- The two fathers are on the same wavelength: happy about the pregnancy. Colman Domingo plays Joseph Rivers, Tish’s dad, and Michal Beach plays Frank Hunt, Fonny’s dad, sitting in a bar, talking about how they will raise the money for the lawyer. Seems like some things will “just fall off the back of the truck,” as the expression has it.
- Regina King, playing Sharon Rivers, Tish’s mom, flies to Puerto Rico, to talk to Emily Rios, who plays Victoria Rogers, woman-to-woman, trying to get her to withdraw her accusation against Fonny, who Rogers was TOLD to pick out of a police line-up.
- And the gut-wrenching scene between Fonny and his friend, Daniel Carty, who was played by Bryan Tyree Henry, who has just been released from prison after two years in prison, for a crime he did not commit, and says, inter alia: “your testimony accounts for nothing”… “I was in the slammer, found out what Malcolm and them was talking about…. the white man has got to be the devil”… as well as the subject line.
- Teyonah Parris, who plays Ernestine Rivers, Tish’s sister, gives her, as well as the rest of us who might be considered “uppity,” some sound advice: “Unbow your head, sister”
In 2009 I reviewed Baldwin’s work and provided a 5-star rating, before I started assigning my special 6-star rating, for exceptional works, which is what this move deserves.
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From the manufacturer
If Beale Street Could Talk
Based on the novel by James Baldwin, If Beale Street Could Talk, is the story of Tish, a newly engaged Harlem woman who races against the clock to prove her lover's innocence while carrying their first born child to term. It is a celebration of love told through the story of a young couple, their families and their lives, trying to bring about justice through love, for love and the promise of the American dream.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2023
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Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2023
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2019
Top reviews from other countries
Robert M
It has a well made behind the scenes making of and deleted scenes
Reviewed in Canada on September 27, 2023
Robert M
Reviewed in Canada on September 27, 2023
The picture and sound quality is amazing retaining the Director Barry Jenkins Vision
Looks awesome in my THX Approved Screening Room
A great film 🎥 I must have for movie lovers
This is a Love story a coming of age film about growing up black and first love
Every race needs to see this movie 🎬
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