The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)

★★★★

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A young man searches for home in the changing city that seems to have left him behind.

Classification: 15

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As Jimmie Fails rides his skateboard across the bay area of San Francisco, Joe Talbot's direction has the camera follow Fails through everything, creating this serene movement of filmmaking. Fails may be the one moving but everything else has stopped, where time has frozen capturing these tableaus of a transforming city in all forms of beauty and madness. However, while Fails' spirit may be free and driven he is the one trapped as he can't accept the reality around him. The quest to reclaim his past and childhood from gentrification and social change is a defeated battle instead of a losing one as Jimmie Fails wishes to reclaim his family home in the city's Fillmore District. A beautiful Victorian-style house that Fails grew up in and claims that his grandfather built in 1946, within a community of San Francisco that was once famous for its diverse residents and artistic culture. But now, in the modern-day that culture is being systematically removed, The Last Black Man in San Francisco plays very much like an ode to that time forgotten as beautiful artistry informs the cinematic reality that Talbot uses to tell this story.

Every day Fails alongside his best friend Montgomery Allen portrayed beautifully by Jonathan Majors travel to the house, to check on it as Fails believes the current owners do nothing to maintain the upkeep. Gardening and painting for free to the frustrations of the white owners who just wish for Fails to leave them in peace. Fails and Allen wait for a bus every day to take them into town, witnessing a preacher by the bay upon a wooden crate delivering passionate sermons, cries of lament and anger on the rewriting of San Francisco's history, but no one listens. Billowing dust from construction sites for new developments, protests on the streets, African Americans pushed out of the city, there is little hope that whatever world Fails remembers can be salvaged. The owners of Fails' house are white, the realtor is white, the neighbours are white, the tour groups that pass by on segways to admire the architecture are white. The Last Black Man in San Francisco isn't necessarily about African American erasure but goes deeper into the ideas of privilege and wealth. San Francisco is now prosperous, prosperous enough that the only elite may live regardless of history, tradition and those that made it desirable.

The sickness of gentrification can be felt throughout The Last Black Man in San Francisco as when Fails finds an opportunity to get the house back he is still faced with opposition. Moving into the house with Allen as squatters, Fails tries to rebuild his memories and recapture that sense of security he felt in his youth. Filling the house with the same furniture that has been kept in storage by his aunt and continuing his renovations, Fails wants the house to be exactly the same. Creating a time capsule isolated from the changing landscape of San Francisco. The script takes inspiration from Fails own life as the character and actor share the same name and similar history, as both Fails after losing the house spend years in foster care yearning to return to his home. The Last Black Man in San Francisco is about that understanding of what home is, Talbot has his film weave many references into how property is fluid, that no one really owns anything. Evictions, demolitions, bills, there is no security but besides all these obstacles Fails will not give up as his story is directly connected to that house. His most positive relationship is with Montgomery Allen which is why he shares the house with him, Fails is alienated from his father and mother, all he wants is that sense of loved safety, that self-worth the house gave him to return, a communal space of family.

Fails believes the house makes him better, improves upon him that while everyone else has given up and allowed gentrification to redistrict and redefine them, his continued presence in Fillmore District is a victory. Which places him and Allen at odds with a group of thugs who hang around outside Allen's grandfather's house, considered thugs because of how they dress, the tattoo's on their face and their continuous insulting of one another for masculine posturing. They are in fact acquaintances of Fails, they knew him growing up and believe that Fails now thinks he's better than them. Talbot has this storyline feed more into Allen's development, he is an aspiring playwright who wishes to understand their interactions and confidence but also ties into the themes of identity. What defines the confidence of these men, what truly makes them different from Fails and Allen? Allowing the film to explore ideas of race in America and the perceptions that are assigned to people.

Not everything in The Last Black Man in San Francisco meshes together, Talbot's direction keeps the film very beautiful and ethereal but at times can feel overabundant and distracting. The film doesn't take place in our reality, Adam Newport-Berra's cinematography transports us to an exquisite world that seizes beauty and truth and blends them into a portrait of one man's story that can speak for thousands. Art succeeds realism in the case of Talbot's direction, it doesn't undercut the emotional impact but he wants us to transcend through the lighting and the framing. To capture that timeless sense just like the house in the

Fillmore District or a song celebrating the very city itself, something that can be revisited and bring a feeling of comfort from the memories it can envoke.

Jimmie Fails and Jonathan Majors lead the film incredibly well but are supported by a talented cast of characters all sharing different values and opinions of Fails journey. Majors is a scene-stealer capturing Allen's curious creative passion and the faith he has in his friend's commitment but the real star of the show may be Emile Mosseri's musical score. A sublime soulful harmony that captures Fails adventure perfectly and elevates to new heights, simultaneously feeling nostalgic and modern. The music and cinematography make travelling through Fails and Talbot's San Francsico an enchanted one, you can feel the love and the fate coursing through the notes and images. This battle of the soul before you, as Fails claims "You don’t get to hate San Francisco. You don’t get to hate it unless you love it" and The Last Black Man in San Francisco captures the magnificent frustrations remarkably well.

We all have our place, the place that we love, that we hate, know, cherish, it is our home and nothing can take that away from you. The Last Black Man in San Francisco is the story of how the physical place may leave us the spiritual experience never will, everything can change but somehow the soul remains the same. San Francisco's changing, everywhere's changing, the world is a constant flux but its not the place that makes the person special but the people that make the place unique. Jimmie Fails doesn't need San Fransisco or that house but rather the opposite, its the danger of gentrification that will strip these places of their personality and just fill the void with vapid sycophants who have no appreciation for the history they'll merely use as an aesthetic filter on their social media. However, there is no anger in the film towards this rather sadness, that many will just resign to the fate given but the film tries to find hope in the story of Jimmie Fails. It's a beautiful film that worth revisiting for greater understanding, capturing ideas and emotions in new ways through its unique artistic vision from Fails and Talbot.

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Director: #JoeTalbot

Cast: #JimmieFails, #JonathanMajors, #DannyGlover, #TichinaArnold, #RobMorgan, #MikeEpps, #FinnWittrock

Release Date: October 25th 2019

Trailer:

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Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews

Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database