Movie Review: The Last Black Man in San Francisco

The Last Black Man in San Francisco **** ½ / *****

Directed by: Joe Talbot.

Written by: Joe Talbot and Rob Richert and Jimmie Fails.

Starring: Jimmie Fails (Jimmie Fails), Jonathan Majors (Montgomery Allen), Danny Glover (Grandpa Allen), Tichina Arnold (Wanda Fails), Rob Morgan (James Sr.), Mike Epps (Bobby), Finn Wittrock (Clayton), Thora Birch (Becca), Willie Hen (Preacher), Jamal Trulove (Kofi), Jordan Gomes (Stunna), Isiain Lalime (Gunna), Jeivon Parker (Fresh), Antoine Redus (Nitty).

 

I’m having trouble coming up with a way to describe The Last Black Man in San Francisco – Joe Talbot’s remarkable feature debut film, and one that has haunted me since seeing it last week. There is a dreamlike atmosphere that Talbot and company create – a kind of romantic haze that the film takes place in. The film really is a love story – on multiple levels – as it plays out. It is a tale of a young man, Jimmie (Jimmie Fails) who is in love with his old family home – a home that his grandfather built with his own two hands in 1946, and was in the family for 50 years, before they lost it – when Jimmie was still a child. Still, it’s the only house he ever really felt at home in. It is a massive house, and it provided Jimmie everything he needed as a child – including ways to hide from his parents when they fought, which was often. After they lost the house, his spent time with his father – squatting in one place after another, sometimes living in a car, and some time in a group home. He never really knew where his mother was, although she’d show up from time to time. All these years later, even though the house is now owned by an older white couple (gentrification being a major theme in the film, as you can tell from the title) – Jimmie still returns to the house again and again and again – to help with the upkeep, much to the chagrin of the new owners. But when something happens – and the house is again vacant, although we know not for long – Jimmie and his best friend Mont (Jonathan Majors) move in. Jimmie is squatting once again.

 

So yes, the film is in many ways a love story about a man and a house. The house is, of course, indifferent to Jimmie’s affection – but that doesn’t make his affection any less real. But it’s also a love letter from the filmmakers to San Francisco itself. Despite the dreamlike atmosphere of the film, you can tell that Talbot and company have great affection and knowledge of San Francisco itself. They have specific knowledge of the city itself – the neighborhoods, and how they have changed. Where the black people ended up, as they started to be pushed out of the city proper by rising rents and property values, and rich yuppies and hipsters moved in. Even the grungy city buses get a kind of romantic treatment – much of the films great conversations happen on that bus. Jimmie is seen with his skateboard throughout the film – and he rides it down the iconic hills throughout the city – drawing more stares than he used to. This is his city, but he’s becoming a stranger.

 

It is also a tale of male friendship. Mont is in nearly as many scenes as Jimmie – and the two of them are extremely close. Outside the house of Mont’s grandfather (Danny Glover) – where the pair stay, there is a Greek Chorus of sorts in the form of a gang of black men, acting out their ideas of black masculinity in violent ways – most of it posturing for each other to look and feel tough for an audience of just themselves. They mock Jimmie and Mont in the kind of homophobic ways we expect – there is no evidence to suggest Jimmie and Mont are gay at all – but they don’t act the same way they do, so they must be right? And Mont is a writer – plays mostly – and he bases his latest on the gang outside – namely Kofi (Jamal Trulove) – who has a history with Jimmie, but is also most invested in making the others in the Greek Chorus know how tough he is. Mont is as interesting, as complex a character as Jimmie – if slightly more realistic. He goes along with his friend’s dream of his home, but knows how far-fetched it is. Talbot’s supporting cast has some very good, recognizable actors in it – Danny Glover, Mike Epps, Finn Wittrock, Rob Morgan, etc. – but it is anchored by two great performances by relative newcomers Fails and Majors.

 

Yet, it may be the other, non-character driven moments that haunt me in the days after seeing the film. A street singer singing “If You’re Going to San Francisco” over a sad montage in the back part of the film for example is haunting and beautiful. Just those shots of Jimmie riding his skateboard down the street – either with Mont on the back, or running behind, or just by himself. The film is utterly beautiful – but in a melancholy way. The film is sad for the San Francisco that everyone involved in the film remember, but is slipping through their fingers. The film reminded me a little of Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk – not because they are both “black” films, but because they are both haunting, beautiful, sad films that find a way to do something very difficult – making dramatic what is really a systematic issue.

 

The film as we suspect from the outset how it must. This isn’t going to be a happy ending – not really. But I’m not sure it’s that sad of an ending either. It is an ending of acceptance in a way – even if you don’t like it, you have to accept it. Or as Jimmie says late in the film – “You cannot hate it, unless you’ve loved it first”.