The Last Black Man in San Francisco

A black man's moving quest to reclaim his grandfather's home in a gentrified San Francisco. Director Joe Talbot's indie drama The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) is beautifully shot, thoughtfully written, and gracefully acted in a truly unique picture. I'm grateful executive producer Brad Pitt got this sweet indie film made. Talbot's direction is lovely with a quiet grace to his gentle heroes. I'm impressed that this was his directorial debut. It's very thoughtful, mature, and surprisingly hilarious with his offbeat humor and pleasant whimsy for all the strange San Francisco locals his heroes encounter. The end is haunting and mature. The Last Black Man in San Francisco is one of the most visually gorgeous films I have ever seen. Cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra captures these stunning far wide shots of San Fran with smooth panning shots that lead into breathtaking medium shots. I found the striking camera framing and soft lighting enchanting. Editor David Marks carefully cuts at a methodical, but steady pace to keep the narrative moving. It did not feel like 121 minutes long, but an engaging picture where we're hanging out with the leads as their friendship holds true and they experience hardship and fun times together. Writers Joe Talbot, Jimmie Fails, and Rob Richert adapt Fails' fascinating real life story with a heartfelt consideration for the feelings of all involved. I was speechless by the end. Each encounter is either hilarious or devastating. The idea that Fails still cared about his grandfather's antique house and tried to fix it up in his memory and for his own sake with nothing else going for him is tragic. I'm grateful to Fails for him telling his story. Talbot, Fails, and Richert bring themes of gentrification of white people kicking out black and asian communities into poor slums to add monetary value to their new property is harrowing to hear. It hits home and saddens me to hear San Francisco is the same as Chicago where the city is essentially segregated by minorities and white people. The Last Black Man in San Francisco is about numerous concepts. There is a dialogue about racial dynamics between the wealthy white people and poorer black community as well as a discussion of toxic masculinity challenging the male ego versus our quiet and confident heroes who just try to maintain through all the heartaches and pain. I appreciate the loving, platonic friendship these two men share that's positive, supportive, and important to see represented on screen. Casting directors Nina Henninger and Julia Kim really got Jonathan Majors, who vibes peacefully with Jimmie Fails in as close to serene as a male friendship bond can become. Jimmie Fails bravely portrays himself as a frustrated and determined young man trying to reclaim his grandfather's house. His sentimental and just cause stirred emotion and empathy in him. I am amazed this was Fails' screen acting debut with his subtle performance of righteous indignation, desolate hopelessness, inner depression, caring friendship, innovative planning, steadfast perseverance, and peaceful resolution. Jimmie Fails should be cast in way more films after his powerful acting in The Last Black Man in San Francisco and Pieces of a Woman. Jonathan Majors is astounding as Fails' stalwart best friend and amateur playwright Montgomery "Mont" Allen. Majors lets Montgomery feel like a gentle giant, thoughtful writer, smart character study, observant watcher, and dear friend. His solo play performance towards the end is as versatile as entire actors' careers. Majors' quiet courage in defending himself and remaining confident when men belittle or insult him is astonishing. I love when he praises Kofi on the street corner when you think he would have lashed out like an ordinary man instead of the extraordinarily considerate gentleman that Montgomery Allen is at heart. I have now been floored by Jonathan Majors in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Devotion, and Creed III. I look forward to seeing him win an Oscar one day. Danny Glover is funny and tender as Grandpa Allen with his old wisdom and supportive ways. It's nice to see Glover get to do a serious dramatic role again. Tichina Arnold really pleasantly surprised me with her dramatic turn as Jimmie Fails' Aunt Wanda Fails. Her funny and unconditional support of Jimmie is sweet. Her husband Uncle Ricky is fun as played by Daewon Song. Rob Morgan blew me away with his harsh criticisms and tough manner as Jimmie Fails' hardened father James Sr. Mike Epps is hysterical as the local car driving guy Bobby. All the guys from Chorus on the street insulting and testing one another are hilarious and touching from Isiain Lalime's Gunna, Jamal Trulove's Kofi, to Jordan Gomes' Jordan. Finn Wittrock is cruel and sleazy as the shyster realtor. Maximilienne Ewalt is very funny and infuriating as Mary, who owns the house in question without taking care to restore it. Jello Biafra is a riot in his cameo as the dismissive and arrogant Tour Guide. Willie Hen's passionate character The Preacher is moving, not just raving. I loved Thora Birch's Becca and Tonya Glanz' Nina in their complaining cameo on the bus. It feels significant that Jimmie Fails will still defend San Francisco as his beloved hometown, despite all his pains living there. Production designer Jona Tochet creates an impoverished and decrepit home for Mont with a cozy historical home for Fails' grandfather's house. Set decorators Eric Louie, Elena Nommensen, and Natalia Poltoratzky adorn the homes with tons of old wooden furniture, a cool organ, and wonderful detailed props. Olivia Kanz' beautiful art direction shows off fields, water, and streets with equal splendor. Composer Emile Mosseri's lovely gentle piano based film score has a haunting serenity to it. He breathes life and feeling into this mesmerizing music to make San Francisco sound like paradise. Sound designers Kent Sparling, Sage Bilderback, David C. Hughes, Luke Dunn Gielmuda, Chris Manning, Dmitri Makarov, and Brian R. Taylor let voices be heard clearly even when whispering. I liked the ambient noises in the city to even the distant gunshots in a pivotal scene. Costume designers Amanda Ramirez, Kristen McCullough, and Valerie Emmi provide dope contemporary clothes for every person with a unique statement, whether they are rough or gentle at heart. Make-up artists Josie Rodriguez, Antoinette Yoka, and Sarah Coy give naturalistic looks to each person that show off the characters' personalities nicely. I liked the different hairstyling work from Kimberly Carlson and Tara Marshell. Overall, The Last Black in San Francisco is mesmerizing with an adorable friendship, cute story, touching performances, powerful messages, enchanting score, and strong direction.

A powerful and moving portrait of a beautiful friendship and the pain of letting go. The soundtrack beautifully accompanies the images and story. The two main performances are quirky and sweet. I hope to see more from this director.

As one of the prof. critics said, pretentious and full of itself....DNF.

In this cinematic era of sequels, super heroes and remakes, it's fortunate that A24 continues to distribute and/or produce small budget films that would otherwise never see the light of day...or, more relevantly, the darkness of a cinema. Add The Last Black Man in San Francisco to the list, a seemingly simple movie about a young man who tries to lay claim to his abandoned childhood home in the gentrified Fillmore District of the city. In reality, it's about so much more. Almost poetic in its beauty, films like this are why people fall in love with the movies. First-time director Joe Talbot, first-time cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra and first-time actor Jimmy Fails are all hugely talented and have the potential to change the way we watch films in the future. And that's a relief.

To filmowa poezja, a nie zwykły film z sensowną fabułą. Cudowne kolory, kadry, ujęcia. Orgazm dla oczu. Niezwykłe zwykłe sceny, ciekawe nieciekawe chwile

thoroughly enjoyed this thoughtful and moving film

music score and videography amazing!

How did this film, "The Last Black Man in San Francisco," become so highly rated here by Rotten Tomatoes? -Perhaps it's a San Francisco thing, which resonated with the 'right' audience? -For this non-American audience watching it outside the USA, the film here simply meandered about going nowhere at all. Once we arrived just past its half-way point, we could not persevere with it. The sound-quality was poor, and the script apparently pointless, and so we saw no point in continuing with it.

Arts Club Movie Review 3 7.7.2021 by Trey The Last Black Man in San Francisco is a film that's been needed to have been discussed and heavily praised in the cinema world for quite some time now since its 2-year release. It's an alluring description of the suburbanization and overall gentrifying nature of the current state of San Francisco. A city is not usually utilized in these types of films which are usually hosted by the usual New York City, Los Angeles, or some random Midwestern town. Finally not left to be the setting of some disaster film or mediocre romcom San Francisco gets an accurate representation of its modern standing. This film not only highlights what is to be expected within the culture of the city but does it within the beautiful perspective of the director and Bay Area native Joe Talbot and the Co-Writer and films star Jimmie Fails who plays well Jimmie Fails. The masculine formalities of friendship and the perspective of men's behavior are also shown vigorously throughout the pacing of this film but very settle. And most importantly the view of optimism and how its importance helps success within someone's personal journey to their goals and positive well-being. The film follows Jimmie and his best friend Mont, natives of the city. They represent our view of someone who's had a heavy relation with this city from a long-lasting testament of its ups and downs and the generations that have come before them. We see how they pretty much are served to heavily support one another, Mont riding every day on the back on Jimmie's skateboard when they travel, and Jimmie staying routinely with Mont and his relative. While it's established that they are friends sometimes it hints into cis standardization of men within the current setting of today's standards and how gender norms affect us. Many times they are assumed to be in relation with one another and the possibility that Mont may be homosexual but they never fully establish it because it doesn't serve the story or common society to label everything and to make it well known what you are internal. But this truly isn't the film's primary focus but Jimmie and his family home. The film centers purely on this, it's showcased that Jimmie's childhood home who was built by his grandfather is now lived in by white neighbors. Jimmie comes to visit the house almost every day and manifest is reuniting with it. It's shown that he's definitely not over this loss and he even does little tasks around the outside of the house like replacing things and repainting parts of it when the neighbors aren't there and sometimes even when they are, which they are very tired of. But due to family issues, they move from it. Which leaves Mont and Jimmie to plot to live within the home while trying to get money for it. Jimmie goes through a family for support with furniture and goods for it and they end up sort of rein-furnishing it. While they do this they cherish every moment they get within the house. Yet they later find issues with the overall pricing of the house, there's so much that has changed over the years, and pricing and income overall in the city just gets more expensive and expensive. We are hinted at the overall gentrifying aspects of the city and we see countlessly through the film the modern stance on what tourism, renewal, and native alienation has done to the city and how it's negatively impacted it and the people from it. The audience is now fully inspecting what is going on within the city but it doesn't just give us this perspective. There are also inclusions of the other perspective, it shows the so evil and bad "gentrifiers" and how necessary they are not the only things purely harming the city entirely themselves and quite a few cherish and appreciate the culture of it. This challenges our ideas of what to feel about the cities status. And what is gentrifying and what is renovating and expanding, or is it mutely both. The audience isn't spoon-fed what they're supposed to think and makes them question their initial hypothesis and ideas throughout the film. By the time the movie progresses to its final 3rd act, we are shown things that question our insight on Jimmie's background and make him question his intent and overall optimism of his journey as the film paced along. This puts the friendship of Jimmie and Monts friendship in question and leaves an elongated tone of tension within their final scenes together. But by the end of the film, the long-lasting enthusiasm and strive for optimism and passion is finally drained which leaves us with our lead to now find a new path to discover himself on his own and to finally accept the truth of his haunted hankered goals. The audience now sees the negative effects of how suburbanization affects large cities with heavy cultural significance and history and how gentrification doesn't seem purely how we expect it to look. And we are left thinking if Jimmie's initial goal even if successful would have even mattered by the end of the film. The negative effects of large cities like San Francisco's economy will only grow to be more gentrified. Which leaves a formidable idea of how we should feel purely on the basis of where we live, how we live, and classism. This film accomplishes so much with its simplistic approach but makes so much out of so little. With the help of the passionate team of people who made this film work. Which interestingly was started with a go fund me campaign which makes the pure execution of this film even more impressive. The visuals are stunning and filled to the brim with personality, like a warmer stylized version of Wes Anderson even with the snarky and sarcastic character portrayals but with actual diversity. And the beautiful accompany of Emile Mosseri's score with its heavy haunting inflections of disparity and emotional attachments of the characters scenarios. The only main issue with the film is its dragged-out pacing fragments and some side characters that could have been handled better. (Personal words from Trey) The last black man in San Francisco is a film that has been something that I've been built up to review for a while. Being someone's who Black/mixed and from the bay the way I resonated with this film and its premise. It made me instantly want to talk about this film but seeing how at the time it didn't have the following or acknowledgment about it I really didn't have anyone or anywhere to really give my thoughts to about it. But now being involved within this page it's giving me the capability to finally give my thoughts on this gorgeous film. That not only helped solidify my relations to the historical values and gentrification of cities that I attract to and that I'm from but the outlook of how it affects other people and different viewpoints surrounding it. From the way, it challenges the audience's views and gives them the opportunities to summarize certain scenarios within their opinions, the way masculinity is viewed, and how it doesn't let it define our primary leads characters. Which was something that excites me being black and "bisexual" and not really fond of labeling. And it's a scarily accurate portrayal of the beauty and foulness that insights the Society of San Francisco. ————————————————— [90] Story / Atmosphere / Perception [80] Orginality / Writing / Uniqueness [85] Soundtrack / Cinematics / Acting Endscore = Brilliant [85] —————————————————

Difficult to describe, and unlike anything you'll ever see, but a moving and beautifully filmed cinematic poem on belonging, community and how the lies we tell ourselves can define our lives. Superb.