If Beale Street Could Talk

Year of Release:  2018
Director:  Barry Jenkins
Screenplay:  Barry Jenkins, based on the novel If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Starring:  KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Teyonah Parris, Colman Domingo, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael Beach, Emily Rios, Ed Skrein,
Running Time: 118 minutes
Genre:  Drama, romance

New York City, 1970s:  Clementine "Tish" Rivers (Layne) and Alonzo "Fonny" Hunt (James) are a young couple in love.  Fonny is arrested on suspicion of rape, and Tish discovers that she is pregnant with Fonny's baby.  Tish and her family struggle to prove Fonny's innocence before the child is born.

This is a very faithful adaptation of James Baldwin's 1974 novel, and retains the books non-linear structure moving between past and present, with numerous flashbacks depicting Fonny and Tish's relationship.  As with Barry Jenkins' previous film, the award-winning Moonlight (2016), this is a beautiful film, with a real visual poetry which blends with the poetry of Baldwins' prose to create a powerful experience.  The film has some fantastic performances, with the actors frequently filmed straight on looking into the camera and communicating almost more with subtle expressions and glances than with dialogue.  Despite being a lush, powerfully romantic film, it also has the anger and grit of Baldwin's novel.  It's a great film, that will break your heart and make you angry.    

Stephan James and KiKi Layne in If Beale Street Could Talk

"If Beale Street Could Talk" by James Baldwin

Year of Publication:  1974
Length:  230 pages
Genre:  General fiction

New York City:  Clementine "Tish" Rivers is nineteen years old, pregnant and engaged to Alonzo "Fonny" Hunt.  However Fonny is in jail, having been accused of rape.  As Tish and her family fight against a racist system to prove Fonny's innocence, the story of their relationship is told in flashbacks.

This book is powerful, angry, compassionate and beautifully written.  James Baldwin is one of the most important American writers of the 20th Century, and this is an urgent and vital book - that is as relevant today as it was in 1974.  It's frequently dark and gritty read, but there is a hard-won optimism here, and the love story between Fonny and Tish is beautifully detailed, and Baldwin writes beautiful, poetic prose.  It's also a novel about being black in America, and just tying to live life when the whole system is against you. 
It's a great book, that everyone should read.