The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)- BFI London Film Festival 2019

Review

121min

Genre:       Comedy, Drama

Director:     Joe Talbot

Cast:         Jimmie Fails, Jonathan Majors, Danny Glover…and more

Writers:     Joe Talbot, Jimmie Fails and Rob Richert

-Synopsis-

In the modern day San Francisco Bay Area, a young black man teams up with his best friend to reclaim his family’s former large Victorian house in the Fillmore District, a neighbourhood long changed and claimed by gentrification, as they become considerate squatters and the last custodians of a personal history and a community now lost.

The bustling and ever-changing Northern Californian city of San Francisco has had a long and rich history on the big and small screen throughout the last half century, revealing its many faces on popular TV shows like ‘The Streets of San Francisco’ and Golden Age classic like Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’, to cool 60s and 70s crime classics like ‘Bullitt’, ‘Dirty Harry’ and ‘The Conversation’, through 80s genre flicks like ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ and ’48 Hrs.’, all the way to recent Hollywood blockbusters ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ and ‘Ant-Man’. Yet ‘The City by the Bay’ has often just been a picturesque and moody background on celluloid, and rarely the very subject at the heart of the story.

Now one of its native sons joins forces with another one, as directorial debutant Joe Talbot digs into the very personal experiences of his long-time friend, the film’s co-writer and star Jimmie Fails, weaving together both a lyrical and enchanting semi-autobiographical story about a fading culture in a city transformed, and a poignant human tale of family and being black in America—delivering a gorgeous but melancholy, socially conscious ode to the bizarre melting pot of the American West that is San Francisco . . . and all its quirky denizens.

Fails stars as a version of himself, a skateboarding jack-of-all-trades estranged from his father ‘James’ (Rob Morgan) and living with his best friend ‘Montgomery’ (Jonathan Majors)—an aspiring playwright and intellectual human observer—and his ‘Grandpa Allen’ (Danny Glover) on the polluted and neglected outskirts of the city, two outsiders who spend every free moment wandering the streets of San Francisco and renovating Jimmie’s grand former family home in the gentrified Fillmore District, restoring it to its former glory guerrilla style . . . much to the consternation of its current owners. But when they leave and the house become vacant, Jimmie and Monty turn it into their fortress of solitude and inject new purpose into their lives, until new interests come to reclaim it and tragedy strikes their neighbourhood—as Monty stages a very personal play which reveals truths that change the course of their lives, and Jimmie’s place in the city.

Through their combined experiences of the city and life itself, Talbot a fifth generation San Franciscan from a filmmaking tradition, and Fails a personal witness to the changing face of the city with a story to tell, have come together to create a truly vibrant and unique cinematic expression of the contemporary African-American experience here.

Blending a lyrical meditation on the legacy and many facets of gentrification, with a soulful sermon on forgiveness, common humanity and being black in America, plus plenty of colourful language and quirky perceptive comedy, ‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’ has the colourful stylistic shades of modern metropolitan Wes Anderson, and sounds like Spike Lee at his best—yet feels like something completely new at the same time. And much of this is down to a phenomenal score of quirky yet traditional classical music from Emile Mosseri, bringing serious atmosphere and character to the film while bolstering its reflective qualities, and combining beautifully with alternative versions of classic San Francisco singer/songwriter folk music, which underlines some of the city’s recent history. A better score in the next or even the previous twelve months will be hard to find, so take note Academy.

‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’ might be primarily an unconventional human drama, but it has such strong and quirky comedic overtones that it not only qualifies as a comedy in our book, but is funnier than many a supposed full blown comedies of the last few years. Yet it also delivers plenty of poignant bittersweetness which ranges from the very interpersonal, to the broader musings on gentrification’s inherent socio-cultural cleansing impact, and people’s fear of not only being displaced in particular, but being erased in general—from both history and memory. And although the many facets of the film are held together and energised by the filmmaking skill and style on show, they can only be carried as a whole by the shoulders of the two central performances at its heart.

After dipping his acting toes in the filmmaking waters as himself in Talbot’s equally personal 2017 short ‘American Paradise’, Jimmie Fails shimmers in a truly heartfelt, nuanced and accomplished feature debut, full of personal style and general soul, and as authentic as stylised drama gets. And as his almost constant scene partner Jonathan Majors is equally outstanding as best friend and confidant Monty, the more tender heart of the piece and its objective observer of humanity, together kindred souls looking for something beyond the confines of their surroundings, and the place assigned to them by society and history.

A humanity further brought to life by fine supporting performances from the likes of veterans Danny Glover as Monty’s blind grandpa and Rob Morgan as Jimmie’s bitter estranged father, as well newcomer Jamal Trulove as one of the conflicted neighbourhood wannabe gangsters ‘Kofi’—not forgetting Mike Epps as the local scrounger ‘Bobby’, who expertly injects gut-busting hood humour at every opportunity.

Unlike most films that deal with gentrification, there is a lack of overt anger and resentment here, and an abundance of self-reflective melancholy, plus plenty of quirkiness, humour and more than a splash of tenderness—and as a result the film often feels, and looks, more like a Wes Anderson piece than Spike Lee or John Singleton. That’s not to say that the filmmakers don’t have strong feelings about it, and there are plenty of echoes from the church pulpits of black America here, but the lack of genuine tension cans translate to a dearth of real edge, proving more whimsical and poignant than gritty, to the point that some have castigated the film for it.

To us though this is no bad thing and is precisely what makes the film stand out, and the language plus the themes and the frankness of the social reflection more than make up for any perceived lack of edge, which when combined with all its unique elements make for something far more memorable. And at least Talbot and Fails have the courage to be intellectually honest about the often one-sided nature of the conversation, reminding us that for every community fearing the loss of their neighbourhood, there is another already lamenting losing theirs . . . and probably another before that.

We are of course dealing with one very specific kind of immigration here, the only one worth talking about apparently, the white kind, where ethnic minorities are slowly priced out of neighbourhoods only for them to be taken over by the white middle and upper classes, and in this case a group that’s become almost a parody of itself—white, pompous, self-unaware liberals . . . and the San Francisco kind no less.

The film leaves us on a positive existential note which turns the funny and the wistful into something hopeful, a meditation on how a home may be full of memory and emotion, but reminding us that what defines us, who we are and who we can become goes well beyond four walls and a roof. All-in-all, a true cinematic triumph of heart and soul, and yet another example of Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment teaming up with A24 to rescue, or at least revitalise independent cinema . . . if not American film in general.

The Bottom Line…

Part melancholy meditation on gentrification and being black in America, part lyrical and personal human drama and friendship tale, and part vibrant and unforgettably melodic ode to the crazy cultural melting pot that is San Francisco, but all heart and soul—Joe Talbot’s directorial debut and Jimmie Fails’ acting and screenwriting entrée proves a delightful, entertaining and reflective casserole of cinematic humanity to remember.

‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’ is out on the 25th of October in the UK, and in US cinemas now.

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