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BankofMarquis (1832 KP) rated If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) in Movies

Jan 21, 2019

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

2018 | Crime, Drama, Romance

7.3

(9 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Starts slow...and then slows down...

Director/Writer Barry Jenkins scored an unexpected Oscar upset a few years ago when his film MOONLIGHT won the Best Picture Oscar (besting LA LA LAND), so it was with much anticipation that his follow-up film was coming out, just in time for Oscar consideration this year - and the Oscar Buzz was loud. So, I decided to check it out...

And...I'm glad I did, so I can warn you to stay away for IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK starts slow and then...slows down even more...and, if that isn't slow enough for you, kicks it down a couple of notches before finishing up on an even slower note.

Based on the best selling book by James Baldwin and telling the tale of a wrongfully incarcerated African-American man and his family, BEALE STREET is a languidly paced meditation on the constant living in fear of the African-American community in NYC in the early 1970's, and when "the system" fails this family, they are afraid of doing more for it might just make things worse.

The film starts out winningly enough when the 2 sets of parents of our young lovers get together to discuss the unexpected coming of a grandchild into this world. The 4 parents (Regina King, Coleman Domingo, Michael Beeach and Aunjanue Ellis) start out civilly, if coldly, but things quickly escalate into a crackling scene that explodes on-screen and I was looking forward to more of this foursome combating with each other for the rest of the film.

Unfortunately, the rest of the film focuses on the two young lovers (Kiki Layne and Stephan James) and these two are not charismatic or charming enough to hold the audience's attention during low-key scene after low-key scene.

Blame for this must go to Jenkins, who is making a very personal, intimate film, but - unlike something like ROMA - the world that this personal pastiche is thrown into is not interesting enough to hold interest nor are the pictures rich enough to look at, they are mostly washed out and boring.

Regina King is being touted as a "sure-fire" Academy Award nominee (and front runner to win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar) and I just don't see it. She was "fine" but nothing more in an underwritten role that was just as low-key and uninteresting as the rest of the film.

Give me the 4 parents feuding and we just might have an interesting film.

If you are looking for a low-key, moody film, check out ROMA, you can skip BEALE STREET.

Letter Grade: C

5 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank (of Marquis)

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Show all 4 comments.

Lee (2222 KP) Jan 22, 2019

Thanks. It's high on my Netflix watchlist, definitely need to watch soon.

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Lee (2222 KP) Mar 14, 2019

So, I still haven't seen ROMA but I checked out this movie last night (completely forgetting about your review!) and I think you were quite generous with your score. What an absolutely awful movie. Completely agree with you about the coming together of the two sets of parents near the start literally being the best thing in the whole movie!

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