The Last Black Man in San Francisco - Wistful Longing and Lasting Friendships

Joe Talbot's stunning debut film "The Last Black Man in San Francisco" earned him the Best Dir. Prize at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.  Talbot was born & raised in the city by the bay for which this beautiful shot and poignantly acted film pays homage.  This tender and heart rendering film emphasizes the ever changing city.  It casts its light on the rancid water in the bays, homelessness, deterioration of its structures, impoverished populations and gang violence.  This languorous film is seen mostly through the eyes of  Jimmie Fails, a skateboarding squatter who pines for the Victorian home he maintains was built by his grandfather just after WWII.  There's a scattering of colorful characters that add luster to this luminescent landscape.  We find a street preacher, an aspiring artist/playwright and his blind father played by Danny Glover.  There's a colorful & loud neighborhood gang of tough talking thugs with little else to do.  The contained plot of Jimmie's commitment to care for and obtain this beloved home in SF becomes a courageous odyssey through a visually stunning city filled with unforgettable faces.  The acting by Fails and Jonathan Majors as Mont is phenomenal.  Their enduring friendship shores up the others dreams and lifts the film into a profound realm.  There are no individual villains in this film.  Patience, dignity & kindness are oftentimes the traits shown.  The malefactor is the passage of time & apathy rendering too often lives meaningless.  The blind eye of society's deterioration is highlighted into kaleidoscope focus.  Talbot wrote, directed and produced "The Last Black Man in San Francisco".  This will not be the last we see from a budding filmmaker of immense talents.