By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
It?s so refreshing that the indie movie
?The Last Black Man in San Francisco? is breaking through the onslaught of superhero and animated fare and emerging as one of the most celebrated and unique films of the summer.
Whether or not that translates to big bucks at the box office remains to be seen. However, the smart money seems to be on ?The Last Black Man in San Francisco? which is being released by
A24 productions and Brad Pitt?s Plan B Entertainment. The movie opened June 7 and expands in wide release June 21.
Pitt?s Plan B production company is known for ?The Departed,? ?12 Years a Slave? and ?Moonlight.? All three movies won the Academy Award for ?Best Picture.?
?The Last Black Man in San Francisco ? had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 26 and took home awards for ?Best Directing? and a Special Jury Prize for? Creative Collaboration.?
San Francisco native
Joe Talbot directed and co-wrote ?The Last Black Man in San Francisco? with his childhood friend
Jimmie Fails who makes his big screen debut in the movie. It?s loosely based on Fail?s life.
The movie features an eclectic cast of Danny Glover, The Dead Kennedy?s Jello Biafra, Finn Wittrock (?If Beale Street Could Talk), comedians Mike Epps (Upcoming ?Dolemite is my Name?) and Tichina Arnold (TV?s ?The Neighborhood?).
Jimmie grew up in a beautiful Victorian house in San Francisco?s Fillmore District, once known as the ?Harlem Of the West.? A series of unfortunate events including gentrification displaced his family from the house which his grandfather built in 1946.
The movie?s plot twist centers around whether Jimmie is telling the truth about his grandfather.
For now, Jimmie lives with his best friend Montgomery (a terrific Jonathan Majors, ?White Boy Rick?). Montgomery is an aspiring playwright who sees and jots down things he can use for potential shows like the rough looking characters that hang out on his street corner. They spout off a bunch of macho profanity laced nonsense because, well, that?s just what they do. Although there?s something about the one guy Kofi (newcomer Jamal Trulove) that stands out from the others.
Honestly, Montgomery could write plays for years based on all the stuff going on in the neighborhood like those hazmat suited workers who are attempting to clean a toxic portion of the bay. Ironically, Montgomery works at a fish market and questions just how safe their food and water is.
He?s able to take his mind off things by coming home and watching old movies with his blind father (SFSU Alum, Danny Glover, ?The Dead Don?t Die?) and shooting the breeze with Jimmie.
Neither Jimmie nor Montgomery have a car. They get around on the Muni. When it doesn?t arrive, they hop on Jimmie?s skateboard to his old house in the Fillmore. Jimmie wishes he still lived there. The way he and Montgomery paint and do touch up work on the outside of the house, you would think they did.
The $4 million Victorian is occupied by an older white couple. They don?t take kindly to Jimmie popping over playing handyman despite his good intentions.
?This is our neighborhood? Jimmie tells Montgomery over and over. Both guys feel as if they are on the outside looking in as they watch the city that they love change so fast.
When an estate issue arises involving the owners of the house and they are forced to leave; Jimmie and Montgomery talk to a realtor (Wittrock) and he tells them it could take years to get the owner?s issues resolved.
That?s all Jimmie needed to hear. He contacts his aunt (the excellent Tichina Arnold) who has kept some of the family furniture. He hauls it off to the house and begins living there with Montgomery as squatters until their gig is up and Jimmie?s father (Rob Morgan, TV?s ?Stranger Things?) hips him to some cold hard facts.
With ?The Last Black Man in San Francisco? Talbot and Fails shine a spotlight on the city?s beauty and despair. It?s a tale of the haves and have-nots, but it?s done in such a poignant and almost poetic manner.
At times, ?The Last Black Man in San Francisco? plays like a documentary, a comedy and drama, yet it manages to mesh all these elements without losing sight of its powerful message.
?The Last Black Man in San Francisco? is as unique, weird and wonderful as the city itself. Talbot and Fails love of it--warts and all--shines through in every frame and every note of music from the film?s inspired soundtrack.
There?s a brief, but amazing cover of Scott McKenzie?s classic 1967 hit, "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)," by Timex Social Club and The Luniz?s Mike Marshall (?I Got Five on It?). It?s outstanding and worthy of much more screen time than it gets.
?The Last Black Man in San Francisco? sits at the top of my list right now as one of the most inspiring and timely films so far this year.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays now at 6:20 p.m. on radio station KFBK 1530 AM and 93.1 FM.
Check Out This Trailer For
THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics? Association (BFCA), The Black Film Critics Circle (BFCC), The Alliance Of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ) and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
