‘The Last Black Man In San Francisco’ Is A Haunting Triumph [Sundance Review]

PARK CITY – Joe Talbot’s “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” opens on a young black girl beaming with a smile that could launch a thousand stars at someone out of frame. As the camera pans back it reveals a man, a white man notably, in a Hazmat suit that is picking up trash in front of her, a stark representation of the battle between the rich and poor in modern day San Francisco. A tracking shot follows, ending on a street preacher (Willie Hen) standing in front of even more men in Hazmat suits behind him.  He’s in a rage over the toxic water and land that the residents of this almost forgotten part of the city continue to endure.  Watching partially dumfounded, partially amused, partially sympathetic are Jimmie (Jimmie Fails, as himself in a star-making performance) and his best friend Mont (Jonathan Majors, incredible). They know all about what’s going down, but, honestly, they have their own battles to wage.

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For Jimmie, nothing is more important than keeping up a Victorian house located in the Wicks neighborhood of the city.  It was his childhood home until 12 years ago when his father (Joe Morgan, always great) somehow lost it. According to Jimmie, the house was built by his great grandfather after he returned from WWII and that means the residence is family to him. His frustration is that it’s currently occupied by an older, baby boomer couple who he believes doesn’t keep it up to snuff. Despite their pleas for him to stop, Jimmie continues to randomly show up.  He’ll fix the paint on a window or stress over the overgrown foliage in the backyard. He works as a nursing home attendant to get by (if that means anything in San Francisco), but his heart is almost always focused on that house.

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Mont, on the other hand, is an unconventional and surprising character. He may spend his days working at a fish market, but he’s a passionate artist, writer and playwright who sees dramatic scenes occurring in conversations all around him, sometimes to his detriment. Socially awkward to a fault but perhaps more street smart than he seems, Mont is also incredibly loyal to his friend Jimmie.

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Everything changes for both men when Jamie discovers that after a family dispute, the couple in the house are kicked out. Knowing the ins and outs of squatting after living pretty much on the street with his deadbeat dad, he pulls his grandfather’s furniture out of storage and moves in. Mont joins him in the exquisite home even though he is the only one wondering how long this situation can truly last.

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Inspired by real events in Fails life, “Last Black Man” would be a unique picture if it simply centered on the outline of this specific narrative. It’s Talbot’s impressive eye that allows the film to convey so much more. Talbot peppers the movie with different sequences of Jimmie skateboarding throughout the city. He’ll get a strange look downtown from a white hipster (or whatever the term for hipster is these days if there even is one) or pass an over-the-top music video shoot. In one vignette he waits at a bus stop where a naked man sits down next to him. A party trolly blasting a dance remix of “California Dreamin'” by Jefferson Airplane filled with drunk douchebags turns around and start mocking them. A fifth-generation San Franciscan, Talbot knows his city inside and out and finds ways to embrace its quirks in often humorous ways while still having respect for its residents such as the friendly neighborhood nudist.*

*We will note that while showing a plethora of different shades of the city there are no gay men or women even as a recognizable passerby. This struck us as a bit odd, but whatever.

In this vein, Talbot, cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra, editor David Marks and composer Emile Mosseri collaborate for a number of cinematic sequences that are simply jaw-dropping. Mosseri’s masterful score, in particular, also deserves massive praise. The film team is so strong and the direction so fine that it’s simply hard to believe this is actually Talbot’s first full-length feature film.  And to detail much more would spoil the genuine surprise of their many on-screen artistic contributions.

Talbot and Fails have a lot to say about family, and how you strive to find one, especially when it has abandoned you. You may even look past a new family in front of you because of the pain you’re experiencing. The two life-long friends also have some cutting criticism for a city that has pretty much become completely gentrified.  No, San Francisco has changed far beyond that in their eyes. Now it’s simply a city for the extremely wealthy and almost no one else.

In a scene later on in the film, two white women (one played by Thora Birch) complain about how expensive and stressful it is to live in the city while the other one suggests she just move to East LA (spoiler: lots of people are doing this). Jimmie overhears their conversation and asks “Do you love the city?” Somewhat shocked by his question they give a stammering response which prompts Jimmie to respond, “You’re not allowed to hate a city you don’t love.” And as much as Talbot and Fails hate what’s happened to their hometown the love is still there in abundance. [A]

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