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PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 8 June 2019
'Last Black Man in San Francisco' a soulful lament

By JAKE COYLE name) is a nursing-home
Associated Press attendant who pines for
"The Last Black Man in San the house he grew up in: a
Francisco " is deeply, even gorgeous, ornately deco-
spiritually, connected to rated Victorian in the Fill-
its home city, but Joe Tal- more district. Once a bas-
bot's film resides in such a tion of African American
dreamy, plaintive register culture, the "Harlem of the
that it feels like a broader West," the neighborhood is
lament for the displaced. now high-priced and gen-
It's an unrequited love story trified. Jimmie's old home,
for an out-of-reach Ameri- which he maintains his
ca. grandfather built, would
Jimmie Fails (the ac- run him $4 million. But just
tor shares his character's because the house is inac-

This photo provided by A24 shows Danny Glover, left, starring as Grandpa Allen and Jonathan
Majors, right, as Montgomery Allen in "The Last Black Man in San Francisco", an A24 release.
Associated Press

cessible to Jimmie, doesn't That's only the framework ting" was raw and electric
mean he doesn't still love to "The Last Black Man in with ripped-from-the-head-
it. He and his friend, Mont- San Francisco," which Tal- lines urgency, "The Last
gomery (Jonathan Ma- bot, a fifth-generation San Black Man in San Francis-
jors), a playwright and artist Franciscan, wrote with Rob co" is pensive and poetic,
who works at a fish market, Richert from a story co- verging almost on magical
sneak back to touch up the authored by Fails. It's as realism. It's a beautiful film,
painting and check on the much a meditation as it is a sometime almost too much
plants. These peculiar acts movie, one that's evidently so. But it's also aware of its
of devotion long ago grew been welling up inside Tal- own sentimentality, and
tiresome for the current bot (making his feature film achieves its most stirring
residents, a white couple directing debut) and Fails crescendos when it turns in-
who pelt Jimmie and Mont since they were teens. ward, questioning Jimmie's
with groceries. When they The well-documented de- nostalgia. This is an intense-
later move, Jimmie sees an mographic changes of the ly melancholy movie that
opportunity to reclaim his Bay Area have been fod- digs deep into the passions
childhood home, and with der for movies before. But and paradoxes of a vanish-
it, his family and his city. where last year's "Blindspot- ing black America.q

Beach Boys' Brian Wilson delays

tour over mental health

Greatest Hits Live tour after
a recent surgery caused
him to feel "mentally inse-
cure."
The singer says he's dealt
with mental illness for de-
cades and it's become "un-
bearable" at times. He had
three successful surger-
ies on his back in the past
year, but the latest one
made him feel "strange"
and turned "pretty scary."
Wilson says he was record-
ing and rehearsing with
the intentions of touring.

In a Aug. 20, 2016 file photo, Brian Wilson performs at Elmwood But his mental health issues
Park Amphitheater in Roanoke, Va. returned, and he says he
Associated Press struggled with "stuff in my
head and saying things
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Beach cerns. I don't mean and I don't
Boys singer Brian Wilson has Wilson, 76, said in a state- know why."
postponed his June tour ment Thursday that he post- Wilson plans to work with his
over mental health con- poned the Pet Sounds and doctors, rest and recover.q