The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)

Jack and I loved this story of a young man trying to reclaim the house his grandfather built in a now gentrified San Francisco neighborhood. Based on the life of Jimmie Fails, who stars and co-wrote the story, in his screen debut, it's directed by Fails' childhood friend Joe Talbot, who co-wrote the story and the script in his feature film debut. In another debut, Rob Richert co-wrote the screenplay and the movie was developed at the Independent Feature Project, earning a bunch of festival wins and nominations.

We watched it on Amazon Prime in mid-January, picking it from Barack Obama's list of best movies of 2019. After all this time I don't remember everything, but I did like Jonathan Majors as Fails' best friend Montgomery, the SF location shots, and the music, both original score and songs. Danny Glover, a proud resident of the city by the bay, has a cameo, and you'll recognize several other faces.

As for the location shots, one error in geography is that the house is supposed to be located at Golden Gate and Fillmore, but street signs prove otherwise. The house shown in the movie is on South Van Ness between 20th and 21st Streets. Adam Newport-Berra is the cinematographer.

Emile Mosseri composed the score and I'm streaming it now on Apple Music. You can also find it on Spotify. Here's a list of songs, including some covers of San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair).

A little fun trivia is that the filmmakers are fans of the cult black comedy Ghost World (2001), based on the comic by Daniel Clowes, starring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, and Steve Buscemi (I liked it, too!). Birch has a cameo in this one as a bus passenger complaining about the city, and she has glasses in her pocket that look just like her character's in Ghost World.

34 producers are listed on imdb. Not enough to win, but it gets a place on the list for my Producers Plethora Prize.

Mosseri was last blogged for Kajillionaire, which actually came out later, but I'm just getting around to writing about this one now since I forgot to make a draft at the time.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics agree with the President, averaging 92% fresh, and its audiences aren't far behind at 84.

According to ReelGood, you can still stream it on Prime or rent it from iTunes. Do it!