The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Beautiful cinematography and a wonderful use of music highlight this melancholy, moving film about the gentrification of San Francisco that is pushing black communities to the polluted fringes.

The film feels a hair or two shy of reality, existing in a rarefied world where visual poetry supplants gritty realism, but I very much enjoyed the vibe this film generated and was able to relax into its aesthetic. It's got two impressive performances, one by Jimmie Fails, who also co-wrote, as the main protagonist, a young black man who squats in the vacant home that formerly belonged to his family; and the other by Jonathan Majors, who plays his artistic best friend. There have been a lot of welcome and very good black-themed movies in the last year or so, and this one shares more of the elegiac tone of an "If Beale Street Could Talk" than the angry energy of a "BlacKkKlansman" or "Blindspotting."

I will say though that one revelation about this film changed my impressions of it a little bit for the worse, and I'm not sure whether or not it's fair of me. I assumed the creators of it were people of color, and that what I was getting was a film from a black perspective. But then I discovered that the director and producers are white men, and now I'm not so sure how I feel about it, mostly because I no longer know whether or not this film is authentic to the black experience. It still has good things to say either way, and it certainly doesn't traffic in the same kind of cultural appropriation as something like "Green Book" from last year, but I have to admit that I'm not sure how I feel about consuming black stories as told by white people.

It is a lovely film though, and it captures a lot of the magic that the city of San Francisco has exercised on me personally from visits there. Which makes it all the more tragic that it's becoming a city that's out of reach for most middle class Americans, let alone disenfranchised minorities.

Grade: A

This movie is beautifully made, shot and acted. There's a good deal of comedy here. The City is a character and breathes in a way not shown before on film. It's the small places shown, the neighborhoods that don't make it into other movies, the light and the cold. The sense of longing is strong in this film. The characters, all of whom are a bit off, long for a stability that isn't there, but that they all hope for and work towards. This is a movie about people who are being crushed in a variety of ways by the workings of capitalism and keep struggling forward. It's not a political movie or an obnoxious "message" movie. Nothing to hit you over the head. It just shows you folks. This is a love letter to a city that ain't there anymore. A place where I grew up but am a stranger. Where the homes I grew up and played baseball in the streets in front of, no one let's kids play in the street in front of anymore. The kids like the housed are too expensive.

This one strikes two big nerves: the crisis of gentrification and displacement happening in San Francisco and other cities across the country; and the general absence in most movies of nuanced presentations of Black masculinity. "The Last Black Man In San Francisco" scores in both cases. It's a beautiful, moving portrait of friendship and a gut-wrenching story of loss. It does what indie films are supposed to do: make us see things differently. The score is gorgeous. The acting, by pros and amateurs, is excellent. (Jonathan Majors is a standout. And check our Rob Morgan's scene.) Above all the movie is different. Unlike just about anything you've ever seen. Quirky, pensive, angry, melancholic. And despite it's sadness, somehow hopeful. Director Joe Talbot and lead actor Jimmie Fails deliver!

Beautifully shot, earnestly acted, effectively melancholy, with a plot that's pretty refreshing, featuring a handful of really strong scenes... but unfortunately as a whole the movie still manages to be quite boring to sit through.

This independent drama on the effects of gentrification in San Francisco played to strong reviews at Sundance. It's also distributed by A24, and their films are generally very high-quality. Judging from its trailer, the film looked to be a mix of understatedly beautiful aesthetics (including some extraordinary cinematography of the Bay Area,) searing character drama, and social commentary. The film is generally well-made, and some aspects of it are undeniably impressive for a directorial debut.

The plot follows a man named Jimmie, whose grandfather built a house in San Francisco on land he purchased during World War II. Today, Jimmie wishes to live in this spacious Victorian house, but its market value has skyrocketed due to gentrification of the neighborhood (and nearby neighborhoods) near where it is located. He begins to develop a scheme with his best friend to move into the house. The film's cinematography is exceptional, and manages to juxtapose both realism and romanticism in terms of how it depicts both the ideals and the realities of San Francisco residents today. Some of the film's shots may remind viewers of Spike Lee's early films, but the film's aesthetic always feels wholly original at the end of the day. The film also uses a variety of other visual and narrative tricks, such as a tableaux vivant-style scene, to help convey the points it is trying to make on how gentrification is affecting relationships between people in urban areas today, much less exacerbating social inequality. The film's simple score is beautiful and almost haunting at times in terms of its elegance and emotional power. The performances in the film are generally strong, as the almost laid-back method acting of the two leads is thoughtful and impactful in its sheer simplicity.

Despite the film's clear achievements on a technical and narrative level that intersects strong performances with aesthetics, "The Last Black Man in San Francisco" isn't perfect. The film doesn't have too many key plot points, which would normally be okay given the film's understated tone. However, the film does feel rather drawn-out in that the narrative doesn't always impact even scenes in which the director is trying to promote substance over style. The narrative's climax is also a bit disappointing. It lacks a clear transition both preceding it and after it, and doesn't quite pack the impact on a viewer in which a film's climax should. That said, the ending is generally satisfying. Also, the film's social commentary is a bit of a mixed bag in that it shows the ways in which gentrification has affected San Francisco--yet it manages to reduce supporting characters both benefitting from and greatly harmed by gentrification to almost caricatures. As a result, the film's messaging on the perils of gentrification in cities comes up just a little short, and clearly falls below the effectiveness of social commentary in films like "Get Out." That said, there's definitely plenty to like about this indie drama. Generally recommended. 7/10