The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)

[Simon Boccanegra]

A semi-autobiographical Sundance Festival sensation that has received nearly unanimous critical acclaim in general release.

Actor Jimmie Fails plays a character also named Jimmie Fails, who dreams of reclaiming his childhood home, a Fillmore District mansion now valued at $4 million. It is implied that both of Jimmie's parents have had addiction struggles, and Jimmie has been homeless for some of his adult years. Jimmie regularly shows up unannounced to perform upkeep on the property, to the annoyance of the older white marrieds who presently own the house. When the white couple vacates the premises in an estate dispute, Jimmie and his best friend, an aspiring theater director named Mont (Jonathan Majors), take up residence. The film mourns a vanished San Francisco and is a wistful rather than caustic response to gentrification and displacement, directed and co-written by first-time feature filmmaker Joe Talbot.  

Sometimes all you can say is "Maybe it's just me," but this one didn't work for me. It works when I stand back and look at its themes and its message, and there are undoubtedly very beautiful moments and scenes along the way, but when the 121 minutes was up, I was relieved to be getting away from it. The overall impression is of vagueness. It stretches a slender thread of story very far, and there are a lot of young-filmmaker issues: the tone keeps slipping around, especially in the early scenes; some of the performances are not well directed, and the screenplay doesn't give much of a sense of the day-to-day lives of the two main characters -- they never really become convincing people. A late scene in which Jimmie is forced to confront the truth behind something he's always (erroneously) believed felt particularly false to me. I didn't believe the other character would have done it in this way.  

I read a number of reviews after I had seen the movie, most of them raves, and Richard Brody's in The New Yorker came the closest to capturing how I felt. Rather than repeating much of what he says, I would refer to that for a detailed analysis. He is critical but encouraging and fair.    

The movie's heart is in the right place. It's the kind of film you see and you hope that the director will go on to make better ones, because you sense he does have something. The major saving graces here are some sharp supporting performances. Beloved San Francisco institution Danny Glover (a blind uncle whom Mont lives with and cares for), Tichina Arnold (Jimmie's Aunt Wanda), and Rob Morgan (Jimmie's semi-estranged father) know a lot about giving fullness and depth to the people they're playing, whether they're being helped by the script or not. Thora Birch has a cameo as an entitled resident (pink-haired, but still what we used to call a yuppie) who trash-talks Jimmie's city, and she's still good at disaffected eye-rolling "rebels." And Mike Epps is riveting and very real in a few minutes as an addict associate of the father's. The minor characters are so vivid; the major ones are sketches.  

Edited July 27, 2019 by Simon Boccanegra

[Traveller519]

Thanks for your analysis, Simon. I just watched it tonight and have similar opinions to you. I respect the ambition, the writing, the performances, and a lot of the cinematography, but I don't think the whole exceeds the sum of its parts.

The Love/Hate theme of San Francisco needed to be more clearly fleshed out with the supporting themes. 

I think this would make an outstanding Stage Play. The two houses settin up the two main sets would play well with the two characters.

[Empress1]

I saw this a few weeks ago. Gentrification, man.

On 7/27/2019 at 6:25 AM, Simon Boccanegra said:

A late scene in which Jimmie is forced to confront the truth behind something he's always (erroneously) believed felt particularly false to me. I didn't believe the other character would have done it in this way.  

I agree. Montgomery was kind of a quiet person who lived in his head and I didn't think he'd put that reveal out there like that. I thought he'd have talked to Jimmie about it, just the two of them.

I will say this: I could listen to Mike Marshall sing "If You're Going to San Francisco" all day. I laughed when he sang "I got 5 on it" since he was on the original. 

[Browncoat]

13 hours ago, Empress1 said:

I will say this: I could listen to Mike Marshall sing "If You're Going to San Francisco" all day. I laughed when he sang "I got 5 on it" since he was on the original. 

No kidding. 

As for the movie itself, I agree that it was scattered and seemed to be more of a series of vignettes instead of a coherent movie, but I did think it was generally a good depiction of how gentrification affects lower income demographics.  In the end, I believe it was more Monty's story than Jimmie's -- Monty was the protagonist, IMO.  It was an interesting (to me) take on a Greek tragedy, complete with Greek chorus.

I can't say I enjoyed it, but I appreciated it and what it was trying to say.  Plus that house was GORGEOUS!!!

[festivus]

I watched this a few days ago and I did enjoy it. It has stuck with me and what Jimmie said on the bus to the hipster chicks is one of my favorite lines from a movie in quite a some time.

"You don't get to hate a place unless you love it." I take from that that it has to be a place you lived all your life, it has to be in your blood. That's how I feel about the city I live in, it's now nothing like the city I grew up loving. The vibe is hanging on a bit for now but in 10 years I think that will be gone. I've gone on long diatribes to my friends about gentrification so I'll spare y'all. 

On 7/27/2019 at 5:25 AM, Simon Boccanegra said:

The minor characters are so vivid; the major ones are sketches.  

I actually don't agree with that. Jimmie and Mont are going to stick with me for awhile. 

[snarktini]

It was mostly sketches, but those sketches and their characters resonated with me a great deal! As a piece of art, its craft is flawed. As a thought piece, it was deeply moving. I'm still thinking about it weeks later, enough to come here and see what others had to say.