If Beale Street Could Talk is such a beautiful film. I must confess that I never did read James Baldwin’s book, but I remember this film gaining traction during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, and I took the time to watch it.

The film is a beautiful slice of life about Fonny (Stephan James), a young man falsely accused of rape, and Tish (KiKi Layne), who does everything in her power to support him.

My reading is that the film is about the resilience and goodness of humans who are up against a profoundly corrupt and oppressive system. After all, there are only two characters in the film who can be seen as “bad guys”: Office Bell (Ed Skrein), a racist police officer who profiles Fonny and accuses him of “running from the scene of the crime” and Alice (Aunjanue Ellis)–Fonny’s uptight, bourgeois mother. However, in spite of her malice, Alice does not cause serious harm. All other characters–including Fonny’s white lawyer (Finn Wittrock) and his Jewish landlord (Dave Franco)–are depicted in ways that they are trying to help. The same is no less true of Fonny’s father (Michael Beach) and everyone in Tish’s family (Regina King, Teyonah Parris, Colman Domingo).

The cinematography is stunning, especially in the flashback scenes that depict that development of Tish and Fonny’s relationship. I was especially impressed by two scenes in particular: Fonny’s visit with his friend Daniel (Brian Tyree Henry), who was just released from prison, and Tish and Fonny’s visit to a loft in search of an apartment. Both scenes are so vulnerable, so raw, and so well done.

If Beale Street Could Talk is certainly a specifically African American story: the accusation levied against Fonny is realistic, and the way that the family comes together to support Tish and Fonny would be all but unbelievable should the characters have been white. The family would help, of course, but every single person did everything they could to help a young child before he was even born into the world.

The film is a beautiful presentation of togetherness in spite of unjust circumstances. Community spirit is at the center of the narrative, and it works so well. If Beale Street Could Talk is visually stunning, the music is touching, and the themes are so important for us today. After all, the fight for racially equality is more important now than ever. Even so, this is a movie about people rather than systems, and it’s all the better for it.