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IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK ***

Dir: Barry Jenkins (15, 119 mins)

Writer/director Barry Jenkins follows up the Oscar-winning Moonlight with this adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel about a couple falling in love, starting a family and facing injustice. Kiki Layne is excellent as the young girl Tish, who falls for Stephan James’ Fonny. They get pregnant and struggle to find a place of their own; Layne’s family are supportive, Fonny’s mother certainly not. Then Fonny is accused of a rape he did not commit and the family desperately try and prove his innocence as the baby’s birth draws nearer and nearer. Nuanced and rich with an emphasis on performance rather than spectacle, this is a rich portrait of black America. There are subtleties within the families: characters are well-drawn and complex rather than mere ciphers and Layne, in particular, is excellent as the struggling Tish. Like Moonlight, it has a languid, observational pace, allowing us to spend time with the characters but does not have as much final, dramatic impact. Opens Feb 8