Give Barry Jenkins another Oscar

His new movie If Beale Street Could Talk deserves the Academy Awards' highest honor

KiKi Layne and Stephan James.
(Image credit: Tatum Mangus / Annapurna Pictures)

Nobody likes dynasties. It's not fun to watch the same team win every year, be it the New York Yankees, the New England Patriots, or the Golden State Warriors. The same is true at the Academy Awards: Who wants to see Alejandro G. Iñárritu win Best Director with The Revenant literally the year after he won for Birdman? No one.

That being said, I propose an exception to this rule: Director Barry Jenkins, who memorably won Best Picture in 2016 for Moonlight, should win again in 2018 for his follow-up, If Beale Street Could Talk. Based on the novel of the same name, Jenkins' Beale Street relies, at times almost verbatim, on author James Baldwin's prose, but it's in the moments between the dialogue and voice-overs that Jenkins comes away with one of the most intimate, tender, and powerful films of the year.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.