Life Is Short is an as-needed
series documenting the films we just couldn't make it through. We like to refer
to these movies as "Damsels in Distress." Previous entries can be
found here.
Title: IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
Running Time: 119 MIN
Elapsed Time at Plug Pull: 75 MIN
Portion Watched: 63%
My Age at Time of Viewing: 56
YRS, 1 MO.
Average Male American Lifespan:
76.7 YRS.
Watched/Did Instead: Went home and eventually did a jigsaw puzzle.
Odds of Re-viewing This Title: 98-1
About two years ago, we reviewed "I Am Not Your Negro" by observing that, halfway through the documentary based on James Baldwin's essays, we wanted to leave the theater and go read one of Baldwin's books instead. Oh, was that painfully evident during the screening of "If Beale Street Could Talk," Baldwin's '70s tale of a young couple dealing with her pregnancy and his incarceration. And so we walked out of the theater after more than an hour of squirming.
Barry Jenkins, whose "Moonlight" was really good but not great, offers up Hallmark Channel fluff, one of the most cloying loves stories you can find. The giddy couple, Tish and Fonny (the physically perfect pair KiKi Layne and Stephan James), make tender first-time love and repeatedly -- repeatedly -- exchange vows of undying love. Supporting characters are paper cut-outs -- the rascally fathers who are going to run a scam to help out the lovebirds; the Jewish landlord in the slums; and the sneering racist cop who almost certainly is railroading Fonny on a rape charge. Regina King, as Tish's mother, gets zero to work with. Narrative twists sometimes don't quite make sense. A scene filled with trash talk stands out as vulgar but refreshing.
This fairytale storybook narration is for the birds. The pace is agonizingly slow. Maybe Baldwin's prose just doesn't translate to the big screen. Maybe Jenkins is just an old-fashioned softie who is out of step with reality. Either way, this treacly melodrama about two absolute angels falls disappointingly flat.
GRADE: C-minus
BONUS TRACK
One redeeming factor was a couple of the tracks on the soundtrack by Nicholas Britell. Here's the lovely "Eros":
... and "Encomium":
Barry Jenkins, whose "Moonlight" was really good but not great, offers up Hallmark Channel fluff, one of the most cloying loves stories you can find. The giddy couple, Tish and Fonny (the physically perfect pair KiKi Layne and Stephan James), make tender first-time love and repeatedly -- repeatedly -- exchange vows of undying love. Supporting characters are paper cut-outs -- the rascally fathers who are going to run a scam to help out the lovebirds; the Jewish landlord in the slums; and the sneering racist cop who almost certainly is railroading Fonny on a rape charge. Regina King, as Tish's mother, gets zero to work with. Narrative twists sometimes don't quite make sense. A scene filled with trash talk stands out as vulgar but refreshing.
This fairytale storybook narration is for the birds. The pace is agonizingly slow. Maybe Baldwin's prose just doesn't translate to the big screen. Maybe Jenkins is just an old-fashioned softie who is out of step with reality. Either way, this treacly melodrama about two absolute angels falls disappointingly flat.
GRADE: C-minus
BONUS TRACK
One redeeming factor was a couple of the tracks on the soundtrack by Nicholas Britell. Here's the lovely "Eros":
... and "Encomium":
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