# If Beale Street Could Talk (film)

If Beale Street Could Talk is a 2018 film about a young woman who embraces her pregnancy while she and her family set out to prove her childhood friend and lover innocent of a crime he didn't commit.
    Directed and written by Barry Jenkins, based on the novel by James Baldwin.

## Tish Rivers

* I hope that nobody has ever had to look at anybody they love through glass.
* There aren't enough hours in the day or judges on the bench to try all the cases brought against these men. The game has been rigged and the courts see it through. The trial is their right. But to bury you beneath the prison for forcin' the judge and the DA to do their jobs is the court's right, too.

## Sharon Rivers

* I don't want to sound foolish, but remember love is what brought you here. And if you've trusted love this far, don't panic now. Trust it all the way.
* That child that's coming, that's your grandchild. I don't understand you. It's your grandchild. What difference does it make how it gets here. The child ain't got nothin' to do with that. Ain't none of us got nothing to do with that!
* This is a sacrament. And no, I ain't lost my mind. We are drinking to new life.

## Ernestine Rivers

* 'Unbow your head, sister.
* Adrienne, baby. Can I tell you something, sweetie? Ever since the first day I laid eyes on your very fine person, I got caught up in your Adam's apple. Oh, I've been dreaming about it. And I can't tell whether I want to tear it out with my fingers or my teeth. And if you touch my baby sister I'm going to have to make up my mind real quick.

## Other

* Levy: I'm just my mother's son. Sometimes that's all that makes the difference between us and them.
* Daniel Carty: Maybe I'd feel different if I had done something and got caught, but I ain't do nothing. They was playin' with me because they knew they could. And look, I'm lucky that I only got two years because... when you in there they can do with you whatever they want. You hear me? What... ever... they want.
* Joseph Rivers: I know some hustles, and you know some hustles. And these are our children. We gotta set them free. So let's drink on up, man, and let's go on in. We got a whole lot of shit to deal with in a hurry.
* Mrs. Hunt: I guess you call your lustful action love. I don't. I always knew you'd be the destruction of my son. The Bible says, "Put to death therefore all that is earthly in you. Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness." That child was born of sin, and the Holy Ghost is gon' cause it to shrivel in your womb.
* Adrienne Hunt: And who do you funky niggas think you are?
* Frank Hunt: I think you'll find it's still pumpin', but I wouldn't call it no heart.

## Dialogue

    Tish Rivers: You ready for this?
    Fonny: I've never been more ready for anything in my whole life.
    Mrs. Hunt: I hope you're proud how you raised your daughters. My girls ain't gon' be bringing no bastards home to feed. I can tell you that!
    Ernestine Rivers: That's because won't nobody fuck 'em.
    Sheila Hunt: She's got a weak heart.
    Sharon Rivers: She's got a weak head.
    Adrienne Hunt: Who is going to raise this baby?
    Tish Rivers: I am, you dried-up yellow cunt!
    Fonny Hunt: It don't seem to me like there's a reason to treat two Negroes so nicely. I mean, clearly we ain't got a pot nor much of a drink to make piss with. Pardon my French.
    Levy: Look, man, with me it's pretty simple. I dig people who love each other. Black, white. Green, purple. It doesn't even matter to me. Just spread the love, you know?
    Adrienne Hunt: Mr. Rivers, what exactly is the purpose of this meeting? You didn't call us all the way over here just to watch my father insult my mother?
    Tish Rivers: Why not? It's Saturday night. Can't tell what folks won't do if they get bored enough. Maybe we just invited you over to liven things up.
    Adrienne Hunt: I can believe you're that malicious, but I cannot believe you're that stupid.
    Tish Rivers: You all right?
    Fonny: Me? I'm not the one who just got punched by a midget inside they belly. [pause]
    [Both laugh]
    Fonny: Do you like me? I mean, when I make love to you? Did you like it?
    Tish Rivers: You just want to hear me say it.
    Fonny: So?
    Tish Rivers: So what?
    Fonny: So why don't you go ahead and say it?
    Fonny: I'm really gonna have to figure out a way of getting some bread together and getting the fuck out of this country.
    Daniel Carty: Oh yeah! How you gonna do that?
    Fonny: [pause] I don't know yet. Tish can't swim.
    [Both laugh]

## Cast

* KiKi Layne - Clementine "Tish" Rivers
** Milanni Mines - young Tish
* Stephan James - Alonzo "Fonny" Hunt
** Ethan Barrett as young Fonny
* Regina King - Sharon Rivers
* Teyonah Parris - Ernestine Rivers
* Colman Domingo - Joseph Rivers
* Brian Tyree Henry - Daniel Carty
* Ed Skrein - Officer Bell
* Emily Rios - Victoria Rogers
* Michael Beach - Frank Hunt
* Aunjanue Ellis - Alice Hunt
* Ebony Obsidian and Dominique Thorne - Adrienne & Sheila Hunt
* Finn Wittrock - Hayward
* Diego Luna - Pedrocito
* Pedro Pascal - Pietro Alvarez
* Dave Franco - Levy
* Marcia Jean Kurtz - a Jewish grocer

## External links

* If Beale Street Could Talk (film) quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* If Beale Street Could Talk (film) at Rotten Tomatoes
* Official website