Following his 2016 film Moonlight, Barry Jenkins returns with his adaptation of James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk, turning the 1974 novel into a visual poem. The film, which received three Academy Awards nominations, including a Best Supporting Actress win for Regina King, centers on two young lovers, Fonny and Tish, critiquing systematic injustice and its horrific impact, especially on Black men in the United States. When Tish discovers she’s pregnant after Fonny is put in prison for the alleged sexual assault of another woman, she begins to find her voice and the confidence to defend Fonny, herself, and others in her community.