As the film unspools, following a courtship and an incarceration in parallel lines, it blooms, building the community around Fonny and Tish like gossamer. That said, Fonny and Tish don’t represent a monolith, and the characters around them - Regina King as Tish’s mother, who raises her children to be polite but won’t hesitate to push for their sake and Brian Tyree Henry as one of Fonny’s friends, who offers a look at a tragedy that he doesn’t yet know is coming for him - are all cut from different cloths. Jenkins’ warm, caring style lifts up the love story between Fonny (Stephan James) and Tish (Kiki Layne) - and makes it so devastating when they’re torn apart, for essentially no reason beyond being black in America.

Adapted from James Baldwin’s novel of the same name, If Beale Street Could Talk is a remarkable portrait of love and circumstance. Annapurna Pictures IF BEALE STREET COULD TALKĭirector Barry Jenkins’ follow-up to the Oscar-winning Moonlight is further proof of his visual mastery.

Best movies 2017 2018