If Beale Street Could Talk

A young expectant mother celebrating the dawn of life encounters setbacks as she embraces riled uncertainty.

Her decision isn't an easy one to make and she's initially faced with righteous criticism.

Unfortunately, the father's (Stephan James as Alonzo Hunt) in prison after having been falsely accused of a monstrous crime, the victim having returned to her home country after suffering extreme indecency.

It's a disastrous situation that's rather difficult to discuss with the victim (Emily Rios as Victoria Rogers), although Tish's (KiKi Layne) mom (Regina King as Sharon Rivers) does her best to make contact and work things out.

Alonzo takes a plea.

Tish strives onwards, patiently waiting for his release.

A confident man, a resilient woman, a versatile couple, an engaging family.

Prejudice accosts them within and without.

But through self-sacrificing commitment, they holistically persevere.

Barry Jenkins's If Beale Street Could Talk laments cold realities by presenting resigned innocence forced to hustle, brand, and stray.

It deals in unsettling sociological facts the harsh conditions of which require sincere systemic change.

A different way of thinking.

A young couple's racial or ethnic background shouldn't effect their entire existence, I've met and worked with plenty of male, female, black, white, Jewish, Arab, European, South American, First Nations, East Indian, gay, straight and Asian people, and none of them were thieves or cons or zealots, and everyone worked hard and didn't put up much of a fuss.

If racial or ethnic stereotypes had pervaded these environments it would have been impossible to work efficiently, and otherwise composed diligent routines would have collapsed beneath the weight of ripe malice.

People didn't judge each other based on shortsighted stereotypical notions, but preferred to evaluate the quality and quantity of one's work, equal opportunity abounding for all, but they had to make sure to get the job done.

If you think the situation's hopeless it becomes hopeless pretty quickly.

You can't expect things to happen overnight, you need patience, endurance, tenacity.

Tish and Alonzo have all these things in If Beale Street Could Talk and because of stereotypical perceptions they come close to losing everything, yet they still dig deep and buckle down.

The film bluntly examines what's left unsaid and although it's somewhat overly emotional at times, it is presenting volatile subject matter, and its heart's definitely in the right place.

Cool sculptures too.

Fruitvale Station

Tragedy strikes a young struggling family in Ryan Coogler's Fruitvale Station, as a tough ex-con (Michael B. Jordan as Oscar Grant) makes the hard decisions necessary to turn his life around.

The film doesn't make him out to be a saint, rather, it delivers a down to earth condensed synopsis of the last few months of his life, during which he comes to terms with the potentially damaging consequences of his extracurricular economic pursuits, and decides it's time to stop selling drugs, find and keep a job, and start applying a higher degree of respect to his partner (Melonie Diaz as Sophina) and daughter (Ariana Neal as Tatiana).

Not so easy to do if you're used to working on your own for more money, but there's respect for working within the law, if you believe in yourself.

Oscar starts to believe but isn't given the chance to make good on his promises after an abusive cop (Kevin Durand as Officer Caruso) unnecessarily roughs up him and his friends one night, another police person then shooting and killing him.

The police had no right to drag them off the train so they were justified in actively voicing their criticisms.

If you do happen to run into a bad lieutenant, however, who has the power to make things difficult for you, and then they start to make things difficult for you, I recommend not saying anything, just keeping quiet, even if they try to provoke you, think of something beautiful, close your eyes after trying to catch their badge number and/or name, and resist passively.

Then they'll have no reason to detain you and if they do anyways just remain quiet until it becomes clear that they have no reason to detain you later on.

There are a lot of situations where this strategy won't work, but if you fight back, things will only get worse.

Freedom is more important than lipping off and the police can take that freedom away.

Or go so far as to take your life, as they did with Oscar Grant.

I'm assuming that in many cases what I'm writing here doesn't apply because the police aren't going to abuse their authority.

They certainly did in Oscar Grant's case though, he was justified in actively voicing his criticisms, and should be currently working and taking care of his family, in the land of the free.