'Moonlight' director Barry Jenkins returns with first trailer for James Baldwin adaptation 'If Beale Street Could Talk'
Very few trailers are good enough to remain in your memory well after the film's release, but the iconic teaser for Barry Jenkins' 2016 masterpiece Moonlight proved to be an exception. When I clicked on that trailer roughly two years ago, I knew absolutely nothing about the film, nor was I familiar with Jenkins' debut feature. Accompanied by Nicholas Britell's haunting score, the trailer sold a miraculous exercise in cinematic grace, one that would leave audiences everywhere in a state of awe. I simply had to see it, and I was lucky enough to catch the film at the Toronto International Film Festival. What an emotional, moving experience.
Moonlight later went on to win Best Picture in a shock for the ages, sending Jenkins on a one-way trip to auteur superstardom. The filmmaker is back this year with If Beale Street Could Talk, an adaptation of the James Baldwin novel that is bound for a world premiere at TIFF. To celebrate Baldwin's birthday, Jenkins and Annapurna released the first trailer this morning. Watch it below!
Over the last few months, word leaked out that If Beale Street Could Talk is a more esoteric and challenging offering than Moonlight. In translation, it means that nobody is banking on this as an Oscar player. It's probably why Annapurna opted to skip a premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, much to the surprise of pundits everywhere.
Sure, this trailer indicates that Jenkins' highly anticipated follow-up will likely be a bit more abstract, but Oscar fans really do have a short memory. Nobody (and I really do mean nobody) was banking on Moonlight to be a Best Picture winner. Even on Oscar night, even before the accountants screwed things up, it was too artsy, too indie, just too small for the Academy to recognize. Conventional wisdom said it would be La La Land, the splashy musical with the famous movie stars and the youngest Best Director winner in history.
When will we realize that conventional wisdom no longer applies to the Oscars? Guillermo del Toro won Best Picture last year for a movie about an interspecies romance. Anything is possible. Literally.
But in the grand scheme of things, Oscars are irrelevant. Moonlight was more than the sum of its awards, and If Beale Street Could Talk is likely to make a splash whether or not it's a player in the race. This looks like a gorgeous film, a period piece built on quiet performances and an understated emotional impact. Moonlight showed just how much Jenkins could do with the camera, and I love that Beale Street seems to be an expansion of his beautiful personal style. This is a bit more of a mood piece than a conventional trailer, but it creates such a vibrant sense of emotional depth that audiences are likely to pay careful attention. This is obviously one of the must-see movies of the fall, and I can't wait to hear how it plays at Toronto.
With a cast led by KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Colman Domingo, Brian Tyree Henry, Regina King, Ed Skrein, Dave Franco, Pedro Pascal, Teyonah Parris, Aunjanue Ellis, Diego Luna, and Emily Rios, If Beale Street Could Talk will hit theaters this fall (the release date is apparently November 30, but Annapurna has offered no confirmation).
Moonlight later went on to win Best Picture in a shock for the ages, sending Jenkins on a one-way trip to auteur superstardom. The filmmaker is back this year with If Beale Street Could Talk, an adaptation of the James Baldwin novel that is bound for a world premiere at TIFF. To celebrate Baldwin's birthday, Jenkins and Annapurna released the first trailer this morning. Watch it below!
Over the last few months, word leaked out that If Beale Street Could Talk is a more esoteric and challenging offering than Moonlight. In translation, it means that nobody is banking on this as an Oscar player. It's probably why Annapurna opted to skip a premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, much to the surprise of pundits everywhere.
Sure, this trailer indicates that Jenkins' highly anticipated follow-up will likely be a bit more abstract, but Oscar fans really do have a short memory. Nobody (and I really do mean nobody) was banking on Moonlight to be a Best Picture winner. Even on Oscar night, even before the accountants screwed things up, it was too artsy, too indie, just too small for the Academy to recognize. Conventional wisdom said it would be La La Land, the splashy musical with the famous movie stars and the youngest Best Director winner in history.
When will we realize that conventional wisdom no longer applies to the Oscars? Guillermo del Toro won Best Picture last year for a movie about an interspecies romance. Anything is possible. Literally.
But in the grand scheme of things, Oscars are irrelevant. Moonlight was more than the sum of its awards, and If Beale Street Could Talk is likely to make a splash whether or not it's a player in the race. This looks like a gorgeous film, a period piece built on quiet performances and an understated emotional impact. Moonlight showed just how much Jenkins could do with the camera, and I love that Beale Street seems to be an expansion of his beautiful personal style. This is a bit more of a mood piece than a conventional trailer, but it creates such a vibrant sense of emotional depth that audiences are likely to pay careful attention. This is obviously one of the must-see movies of the fall, and I can't wait to hear how it plays at Toronto.
With a cast led by KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Colman Domingo, Brian Tyree Henry, Regina King, Ed Skrein, Dave Franco, Pedro Pascal, Teyonah Parris, Aunjanue Ellis, Diego Luna, and Emily Rios, If Beale Street Could Talk will hit theaters this fall (the release date is apparently November 30, but Annapurna has offered no confirmation).
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