The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Movie
Original title	The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	2019
length	120 minutes
Rod
Director	Joe Talbot
script	Joe Talbot, ; Rob Richert
production	Dede Gardner , ; Jeremy Kleiner , ; Khaliah Neal , ; Christina Oh , ; Brad Pitt , ; Joe Talbot
music	Emile Mosseri
camera	Adam Newport-Berra
cut	David Marks
occupation
	Jimmie Fails : Jimmy Fails; Jonathan Majors : Montgomery Allen; Danny Glover : Grandpa; Tichina Arnold : Wanda; Mike Epps : Bobby; Rob Morgan : James Sr.; Thora Birch : Becca; Tonya Shine : Nina; Finn Wittrock;

The Last Black Man in San Francisco is a drama directed by Joe Talbot that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2019 .

action

Jimmy Fails lives with his friend Montgomery Allen in San Francisco. His ultimate goal is to bring the Victorian house built by his grandfather back into family ownership. After the owner of the house dies and the legal succession remains unclear, the previous residents have to leave the house. Jimmy and Montgomery move into the now empty house and refurbish it with the original furniture. Jimmy tries in vain to buy the house and is put out on the street by the real estate agent along with the furniture. Montgomery learns that the house was not built by Jimmy's grandfather, but like the other houses in the area about a hundred years earlier.

production

Directed by Joe Talbot , who also wrote the script with Rob Richert .

Jimmie Fails , on whose true life story the film is based, took on the lead role of the same name. In May 2018, the cast with Jonathan Majors , Danny Glover , Tichina Arnold , Rob Morgan , Mike Epps , Finn Wittrock and Thora Birch was announced. Filming started in April 2018.

The film music was composed by Emile Mosseri . The soundtrack, which includes a total of 26 pieces of music, including San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) by Daniel Herskadall , Emile Mosseri and Joe Talbot , was released on June 7, 2019 by Lakeshore Records.

The film was shown for the first time on January 26, 2019 as part of the Sundance Film Festival . A first trailer was presented in March 2019. A24 took over the distribution . The film was released in selected US cinemas on June 7, 2019. In August 2019 it will be shown at the Locarno Festival at the Concorso internazionale, and at the beginning of October 2019 at the London Film Festival .

reception

Age rating

In the USA, the film received an R rating from the MPAA , which corresponds to a rating of 17 and over.

Reviews

The film has so far won over 93 percent of all Rotten Tomatoes critics and received an average rating of 8.3 out of a possible 10 points.

David Ehrlich of IndieWire writes that Joe Talbot tells Jimmie's story in his hilarious and bittersweet debut film from the perspective of someone who cannot bear to leave his hometown behind. His unforgettable film is a requiem for the things we lose and a wise reminder that we can't really keep anything forever, Ehrlich said.

Peter Debruge of Variety compares to want to tell a film about the gentrification trying to make an attempt, an action movie about global warming. While both processes are inherently dramatic, both processes have been so slow that audiences lose interest while waiting for the ice caps to melt, Debruge said. While racial relations, class struggle, and gentrification are indispensable themes in contemporary drama, viewers tend to get bored when these themes come to the fore as a plot. The Last Black Man in San Francisco is facing the same problem , but Adam Newport-Berra's camera and Emile Mosseri's film music manage to maintain a warm feeling towards the main characters. Cinereach, who supported the film, have already shown with films such as Beasts of the Southern Wild , The Florida Project and We the Animals that it is worth investing in sound and visuals so that a film is taken seriously by the audience. In a weird way, this movie feels like an unconventional romance in which the hero is obsessed with not a person but a house.