The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)

Directed by: Joe Talbot | 121 minutes | drama | Actors: Jimmie Fails, Jonathan Majors, Rob Morgan, Tichina Arnold, Mike Epps, Finn Wittrock, Danny Glover, Willie Hen, Jamal Trulove, Antoine Redus, Isiain Lalime, Jordan Gomes, Maximilienne Ewalt, Michael O’Brien, Daewon Song, Mari Kearney, Dennis Chavez, Dakecia Chappell, San Quinn

In ‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’ we follow Jimmie Fails (playing himself) and his best friend Montgomery Allen (Jonathan Majors). Due to their poor finances, the two friends live in the house of Montgomery’s blind grandfather (Danny Glover), but in their spare time they go to the Historic District of San Francisco to see Jimmie’s childhood home. In the 1990s, Jimmie’s father (Rob Morgan) lost the home. Although an elderly couple now lives in the house, Jimmie does everything he can to maintain it. This is much to the dismay of the couple, who often pelt Jimmy with fruit during his chores. One day, the two friends encounter movers who are clearing out the house. A probate dispute has forced the tenants to leave and until the matter is resolved, the house will remain vacant. Jimmie and Montgomery upon hearing the news choose eggs for their money and immediately move in, determined to live there once and for all. But this is no longer the San Francisco they thought they knew.

Director Joe Talbot and lead actor Jimmy Fails grew up together in San Francisco and discussed the possibility of making a film as they were teenagers. In 2015, the two shot a trailer to raise money for the making of the film and launched a successful Kickstarter campaign. Within a month, countless contributors supported the campaign, raising more than $75,000 in total. When a short film by Talbot and Fails, “American Paradise,” made it to the Sundance Film Festival in 2017, they met production company Plan B. The company (owned by none other than Brad Pitt) took an interest in their project and a few months later started filming. Their long cherished dream had come true.

‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’ shows a side of San Francisco that other films usually leave out. Like many major cities, San Francisco has its homeless and underprivileged, but these groups rarely appear in movies about the city. Director Joe Talbot has chosen for a change to show this side, but not in the way you might expect. From the topics covered by the film, Talbot also seems to want to say something about the decor of the city and what lies behind it, about the city of San Francisco becoming a kind of museum city whose monuments are still admired, but whose history is fading. This theme runs throughout the film and is also embodied by the characters of Jimmy and Montgomery. Their complicated relationship with the city is the beating heart of the film. The two friends are deeply attached to San Francisco, but at the same time they have a common aversion to the constant transformation that the city is going through. In this respect, the film is both a love letter and a farewell letter, and both an ode and an objection to an ever-changing city that we all think we know, but rarely hear the residents speak about themselves.

Despite the beautiful message that the film conveys, this debut also has its shortcomings. The topics covered by the film are captivating, but the structure of the film is at times slow to the point of annoyance. Scenes linger far too long and are often repetitive. Some of the actors also fall short. Fails and Majors act well, but this cannot be said of some of the other actors. A theatrical performance towards the end of the film is a good example of this. Here, both literally and figuratively, a stage is given to all kinds of characters created on the spot, none of whom manage to impress. Hardly any person feels like a full-fledged actor in this scene, it’s as if they were haphazardly pulled off the street to play in this movie. The theatrical performance is supposed to serve as one of the great emotional scenes of the film, but it manages to make little impression due to the ineptitude of the actors.

‘The Last Black Man In San Francisco’ isn’t a perfect debut, but it does have an original story and a very big heart. Joe Talbot clearly has talent as a director and his next film certainly promises to be interesting again.