7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A young man with a big dream (and a quirky best friend) searches for home in the changing city that seems to have left him behind.
Starring: Jonathan Majors, Danny Glover, Tichina Arnold, Rob Morgan (IV), Mike EppsDrama | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Childhood homes seem to hold a special place in many people’s memories. One of the best holiday presents I ever received was decades ago on Christmas Eve day when I was visiting Salt Lake City, where I had grown up, and I dropped by the house I was born in but had moved out of when I was probably eight or nine or so. I was taking pictures of it when the current owner appeared at the front door, and I apologized profusely, but it turned out he had been the one to buy the house from my parents, and he invited me in to look around. I’m not ashamed to admit I was overcome with emotion as a whole slew of memories flooded my mind, but the overarching experience was one of both familiarity and surprise, since the house, to my adult mind, was considerably smaller than I had remembered. Childhood homes are at the center of the frequently touching The Last Black Man in San Francisco, a film which offers Jimmie Fails in a somewhat fictionalized version of his own story, wherein the encroaching gentrification of the film’s titular city has left several of its longtime residents by the wayside. What’s interesting as a kind of foundational if subliminal aspect is how The Last Black Man in San Francisco conflates family legacies with structures, since an underlying plot conceit is that Jimmie continues to visit and fix up a charming Victorian which he insists his grandfather built in the post World War II era, but which is now owned by an older white couple. In fact, the film’s whole opening sequence is kind of almost surreal, as Jimmie and his best bud Montgomery Allen (Jonathan Majors) hang out waiting for a bus while a “street preacher” rants nearby at hazmat wearing workers who are picking up trash. The “sermon” already hints at a city experiencing both growth and dissolution, but the focus soon turns to Jimmie and Mont, who forsake waiting for the bus to both ride Jimmie’s skateboard to their destination. That turns out to be Jimmie’s childhood home, though that isn’t initially disclosed. Instead the two kind of sneak around the property, making sure no one is there, before Jimmie rather unexpectedly climbs a ladder and begins painting a window sash. Only when the current owners show up and begin pelting Jimmie with the groceries they’ve just purchased does Jimmie’s obsession with something he thinks of as his (or at least rightfully his) become more apparent.
The Last Black Man in San Francisco is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. The closing credits offer a generic Arri logo, but the IMDb lists Alexa Minis as having been used, with a 2K DI. The visual side of things if frequently highly stylized, and though the film uses bounteous location shots, at times it seems like greenscreen might have been used for backgrounds for moments like the street preacher, giving things a slightly unreal quality. The palette is beautifully suffused, and can often veer toward warmer territory like golds and reds. Detail levels are frequently quite impressive, offering excellent accounts of finely patterned costumes or some of the textures on, in and around the house that Jimmie takes over.
The Last Black Man in San Francisco features an enjoyable DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that establishes nice surround activity in the frequent outdoor moments, as well as in the use of both source cues and underscore. Even some of the quieter interior scenes offer clear placement of ambient environmental sounds in discrete channels, and dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.
There is a lot to like, maybe even love, about The Last Black Man in San Francisco, and the film has its own inimitable style, which some viewers may understandably feel doesn't always completely support its more heartfelt aspects. For anyone who has indelible memories of their own childhood home, or who has perhaps seen their hometowns give way to both disrepair and gentrification, this story will offer some considerable interest. The performances are all worthwhile, and Joe Talbot offers a really interesting visual approach. Technical merits are solid, and The Last Black Man in San Francisco comes Recommended.
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