If Beale Street Could Talk              5 stars

A leading contender for a Best picture nomination this year has to be If Beale Street Could Talk, Barry Jenkins follow up film to 2016’s Moonlight.  This film, set in the early seventies in Harlem is based on a novel by African American writer and novelist James Baldwin and is about racial injustice as it affects the two families in the story.  However, the movie is mainly a love story between the two young lovers, Tish (newcomer Kiki Layne) and Fonny (Stephen James), childhood friends who have gotten engaged and are about to spend their lives together.  Their world is suddenly shattered when Fonny is wrongfully accused of a rape that he did not do and is caught in a legal system that has little regard for the truth or justice.  It is when Tish comes to visit Fonny in jail that the news is broken that she is pregnant with their child, so the injustice spreads further.  In one very dramatic scene, Fonny’s family is invited over to Tish’s family where the news is broken to all.  Then we really find out the family dynamics involved, especially when Fonny’s holy roller mother come down hard on young Tish condemning her for her sins causing all sorts of fireworks to come out.  Regina King is perfect as Tish’s mother struggling to hold the family together and do what she can to get to the truth and free Fonny.  The masterly done scene set ups and dialogue gives the film a very authentic feel.  Much attention to detail went into the costumes and sets making it seem like the early seventies again.  Much of the film is told in a nonlinear fashion so we see the loving couple together interspersed with scenes dealing with lawyers and prison guards showing the peril the characters are in.  Count on Best Picture and Best director nominations for If Beale Street Could Talk.  And look for it in theaters as it goes into wider release.