If Beale Street Could Talk is the movie adaption of the brilliant novel written by James Baldwin in 1974. If you’ve ever read any of Baldwin’s novels or essays you’ll be keen to his prescient words and imagery he describes. The film is written for screen and directed by the Academy Award winning director of Moonlight, Barry Jenkins.
It’s a love story on multiple levels- poetically illustrating the unwavering love of a young couple whose known each other since childhood and the love bonds within the African-American family in Harlem during the early 70’s. Newcomer lead actress KiKi Layne stars as Tish Rivers, a 19-year old mother and wife-to-be, has her world rocked when her fiancé is imprisoned for a crime he did not do. The false prisoner is Alonzo Hunt (or Fonny for short) portrayed by Stephan James. Tish struggles with the unexpected prospect of parenthood and holding down a job without her partner at her side. She leans on familial and inner strength to wade through while fighting along with her fiancé for his freedom. Beale Street is a representation for all black people in an unforgiving and racially biased America- which crosses time frames to show how love and humanity endure.
“Beale Street is a street in New Orleans, where my father, where Louis Armstrong and the jazz were born. Every black person born in America was born on Beale Street, born in the black neighborhood of some American city, whether in Jackson, Mississippi, or in Harlem, New York. Beale Street is our legacy. This novel deals with the impossibility and the possibility, the absolute necessity, to give expression to this legacy. Beale Street is a loud street. It is left to the reader to discern a meaning in the beating of the drums.” – James Baldwin
If Beale Street Could Talk hits theaters December 14th, 2018. Be sure to watch the trailer and see the film as critics are already saying it’s a contender for The Oscars nomination.
