Popular reviews

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  Review by demi adejuyigbe ★★★★ 8

  I wish I had more to say about Beale Street, but all I can call it is heartbreaking. It filled me with a tension that so many black films fill me with, where I’m waiting for an ultimate, inevitable cruelness to set in, and so paralyzed by that waiting that I watch it more like a horror film. But there is no cruel twist coming. It’s all there from the beginning. And although it is more than anything a story about love and the lengths we go to see that love through, it’s a story about how much longer that length is when your very existence denies you to the right to live a peaceful life.

  Every black person born in America was born on Beale Street, born in the black neighborhood of some American city, whether in Jackson, Mississippi, or in Harlem, New York. Beale Street is our legacy.

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  Review by k(arst)en ★★★★½ 10

  Barry Jenkins could film himself taking a shit and it’d probably be one of the most beautiful things I’ll ever see.

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  Review by Sean Baker 21

  Very formal - precise and controlled in almost every aspect of Barry's direction. Quite refreshing being that the docu-style is so overused these days.

  Very much like Moonlight, I am drawn towards the very strong supporting actors, all bringing complexity and levity to characters that have very limited screen time - Colman Domingo as Tish’s father, Teyonah Parris as Tish’s sister and a powerful "cameo" from Brian Tyree Henry.

  Screened at the Ray Kurtzman Theater at CAA.

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★★ 7

  i love James Baldwin's book, but it's a testament to Barry Jenkins' talent that many of the most beautiful parts of this adaptation are of his own invention (Dave Franco's scene being a clear and particularly moving example). what an extraordinary, generous, perseverant film this is.

  as with ROMA and BURNING i feel the need to see it again before i say anything more, but yeah… Barry Jenkins: not bad at making movies.

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  Review by #1 gizmo fan ★★★★½ 5

  this movie made me feel helpless, hopeful, sad, happy, broken, fixed, enraged, calm, and at peace all at the same time.

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  Review by Lucy ★★★★

  “you ready for this?”

  so immaculate that it’s almost untouchable in a way, like looking at artwork through glass. it’s still a sight to behold, but feels slightly inaccessible somehow. the story and how it’s presented and mixed up is my biggest issue here, but it’s overall packaged so carefully and beautifully that i find i didn’t mind much at all in the end

  and nicholas britell really did it again: this is easily the best score of the year. my goosebumps were continuous

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  Review by lauren ★★★★½ 1

  if beale street could talk it would ask me to stop crying during its entire run time

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  Review by Jay ★★★★ 20

  gonna trick my racist grandma into watching this saying its an eastenders spin-off about ian beale

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  Review by Wes ★★★★★

  "Unbow your head." 

  the waltz of life and love and hope. there is no greater force of good on this earth than barry jenkins' camera.

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  Review by Matt Singer 5

  I look forward to many years of hearing this movie’s magnificent score and then stopping whatever I’m doing to listen to it while taking several long, deep sighs.

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  Review by iana ★★★★★ 1

  this is a perfect film, the world just isn’t ready for it

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  Review by kayla ★★★★½ 9

  The way Fonny and Tish would look at each other with so much love made me want to cry every single time