“How long has this been going on?”, asks Joseph Rivers (Colman Domingo) after learning that his unmarried daughter Tish (KiKi Layne) is pregnant to her lifelong friend and soulmate Fonny (Stephan James).

Bourbon in hand, he fills four tumblers and invites his loving wife Sharon (Regina King) and feisty daughter Ernestine (Teyonah Parris) to raise a glass in cautious celebration.

Not so Fonny’s God-fearing mother Mrs Hunt (Aunjanue Ellis) who in stark contrast to her “hip” husband Frank (Michael Beach) tells her future daughter-in-law that she hopes the foetus shrivels in her womb.

If Beale Street could talk, it would echo Tish’s colourful riposte to one of Fonny’s judgemental sisters: “dried up yellow c**t”.

After a Romeo and Juliet opening in which the loving couple walk hand-in-hand through a sun-drenched oasis of birdsong and petals, the harsh realities before them are represented by the soulless concrete of freeway and high-rise, factory and squalor, which forces them to unclasp hands and consider the question, “Are you ready for this?”

“This” being a lengthy prison sentence and threat of execution after a rape victim is coerced by a racist cop with a grudge (Ed Skrein as Officer Bell) to wrongfully accuse Fonny of the heinous crime.

“How long has this been going on?” suddenly takes on a different meaning. But “How long will this continue?” is a more pressing concern for at the end of the film we are left with the burning image of mother and child playing happy families with Fonny who remains in jail after taking a plea to save his life – to the ironic tune of “My County ‘Tis of Thee”.

A hymn to love, and a harrowing and heartbreaking account of racism, from the first crack of a slave-owner’s whip to the most recent shooting by a trigger-happy cop, If Beale Street Could Talk (based on the novel of the same name by James Baldwin) is every bit as memorable and masterful as writer and director Barry Jenkins’ second feature Moonlight. And every bit worthy of its Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

As is Nicholas Britell’s score which, together with James Laxton’s cinematography, is perfectly married to the complexity of the characters, the poetry of the dialogue and the inarguable conclusion that “the game has been rigged”.

Director: Barry Jenkins
Writers: Barry Jenkins (written for the screen by), James Baldwin (based on the book by)
Stars: KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King
Peter Callaghan
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