6/10/2023 0 Comments Beale street could talk bookJames: It was, for me, the prospect of working with James Baldwin and with Barry Jenkins, you know, that marriage. The two spoke about the beauty and urgency of Baldwin’s work, how Jenkins translated that to film, and how unfortunately timely and rare the film’s message is. But this is Layne’s first feature film, and next year she’ll be starring in another adaptation of a seminal work, Richard Wright’s Native Son. At 25, he’s already played icons Jesse Owens and John Lewis. This isn’t James’s first time in a film that deals with such powerful themes. The film jumps through narratives, and we watch their love bloom at the same time we watch Tish’s family come together to face the terrible odds of getting Fonny free. Stephan James and KiKi Layne play Fonny and Tish, two young lovers torn apart by Fonny's false arrest, just as Tish finds out she’s pregnant. James Baldwin published If Beale Street Could Talk in 1974, and yet the combination of all these experiences-the love and the pain-manages to feel new in the hands of Moonlight director Barry Jenkins. The many injustices of our justice system aren’t new. Finding strength in vulnerability isn’t new. White cops wielding their power against marginalized populations isn’t new. Nothing in If Beale Street Could Talk is new.
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