This love story of a woman and her wrongly imprisoned fiancé in 1970s New York is wonderful, powerful, and sad. KiKi Layne, in her feature debut, narrates the movie, jumping back and forth between her character Tish falling in love with Fonny and his time in jail. Stephan James (last blogged as Jesse Owens in Race) gives us plenty to work with as Fonny has to deal with prejudice both in and out of his own family. Tish's family is beautifully portrayed by Regina King (most recently in these pages for The Hate U Give) as her mother, Colman Domingo (made appearances in Lincoln, The Butler, Selma, The Birth of a Nation, to name a few) as her father, and Teyonah Parris (last blogged for Chi-Raq) as her sister.
Director/writer Barry Jenkins (most recently in these pages for the multi-winning and nominated Moonlight) has adapted the 1974 novel by James Baldwin into more Oscar bait. Not having read the book, Jack and I were frankly confused about why it's called "Beale Street," which is in Memphis, but this movie is all New York. The lovely photography by James Laxton (last shot Moonlight) is a love story to the city as well.
Nicholas Britell's (last scored Vice) original soundtrack can be streamed on spotify and Apple Music, and maybe more. Apparently the score started out mostly brass but Britell decided late in the process that strings were the sound of love and added lots. Also, I was able to get the exact list of songs and made my own spotify playlist for your and my listening pleasure.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 95%, are talking up this one, while its audiences, at 71, are less vocal. Ignore them. This is good cinema, and will be included tomorrow when the Oscar nominations are announced.
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