She celebrates when her teenage daughter announces her out-of-wedlock pregnancy and she travels to Puerto Rico in the hopes of convincing Fonny’s accuser of her mistaken identification. In an unjust world that seems pitted against Tish and Fonny, Sharon is a steadfast force of compassio n while refusing to give in to a system that victimizes her family. One of the more compelling characters is Tish’s mom Sharon, played masterfully by Regina King. As the story effectively highlights issues of racism and imprisonment, the characters’ personalities feel secondary to their circumstance. The two leads frequently come off as one-dimensional, characterized primarily by the love they feel for one another. No relationship, nor any single person, is perfect, and both Tish and Fonny lack the flawed complexity of fully fleshed out characters. While the flashbacks fulfill a pointed purpose, the utopic framing of the past sacrifices some of the authenticity of their relationship. Jenkins intentionally paints the fragments of their past as picturesque to illustrate the idyllic future that racism could potentially deny the young couple. Tender moments – ranging from house hunting to their first time having sex – are juxtaposed with the bleak reality of the current situation. Tish and Fonny’s relationship is told primarily via flashbacks interwoven throughout the present-day turmoil. After Tish discovers she’s pregnant, her and her family band together in a desperate effort to clear his name. The picture-perfect love story is almost immediately shattered, however, when Fonny is incarcerated on a false rape accusation.

The film chronicles the relationship between 22-year-old Alonzo (Stephan James), who goes by Fonny, and 19-year-old Tish (KiKi Layne) as they navigate life and love in 1970s Harlem. Although his third feature film is more flawed than its predecessor, “If Beale Street Could Talk” is an undeniably beautiful portrait of a couple torn apart by a corrupt criminal justice system. “Moonlight” was only the beginning for director Barry Jenkins.Īlmost two years after his second feature film’s best picture win, Jenkins’ name has resurfaced in the Oscars conversation following the release of his highly anticipated new film “If Beale Street Could Talk.” Adapted from James Baldwin’s 1974 novel, the film is a delicate period romance and a poignant depiction of racial injustice that showcases Jenkins’ penchant for poetic visual storytelling.

If beale street could talk book review