The follow-up by director/writer Barry Jenkins to the award-winning Moonlight has some similar qualities but tells a very different tale of black experience adapted from the James Baldwin novel. Essentially a very sweet and genuine love story about a young black couple who find themselves expecting a child, the story takes darker turns by introducing elements such as (a shockingly abrupt moment of) domestic abuse and the effects of justice system on an old friend, before really challenging the couple with the man falsely accused of rape and incarcerated, seemingly through the machinations of a racist white police officer with whom the couple had a previous bad encounter. At times there is an odd tension between melodrama and polemic and the pace makes it occasionally dreary, but Kiki Layne and Stephan James make a charming and beautifully-played couple who are completely captivating throughout, and the film is vibrantly lensed.
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