“Fonny, there’s something I gotta tell you,” Tish (newcomer KiKi Layne) says to her boyfriend over the phone. But, as the next shot of “If Beale Street Could Talk’s” trailer reveals, she and Fonny (Stephan James, “Shots Fired”) aren’t having a normal phone conversation: she’s actually right in front of him, talking to him from the other side of the glass in a prison’s visitors’ room. Tish has just found out she’s pregnant, and Fonny has been convicted of a crime he didn’t commit.
Despite the terrible circumstances, Tish and her family decide they’re going to do everything they can to exonerate Fonny before the baby is born. “We’ll find a way,” Tish promises when an incarcerated Fonny tells her he dreams of holding her and their child.
Check out the trailer below to hear the advice Tish’s mother (Regina King) gives her when she starts to lose hope that Fonny will ever be freed.
Adapted from James’ Baldwin’s novel of the same name, “If Beale Street Could Talk” marks director Barry Jenkins’ follow-up to his Oscar-winning “Moonlight.” It premiered at TIFF earlier this month to rave reviews. The cast also features Teyonah Parris (“Chi-Raq”), Colman Domingo (“Fear the Walking Dead”), and Brian Tyree Henry (“Atlanta”).
“If Beale Street Could Talk” opens in select theaters November 30.
