"Medicine for Melancholy" (2008) Directed by Barry Jenkins

The few minutes preceding the opening credits of Barry Jenkins’ debut feature set the tone entirely for the coming hour and a half, with long periods of silence punctuated by awkward, nervous glances or brief fractured conversations, unusual and oblique camera angles of routine everyday occurrences, majestic wide shots of the city of San Francisco from high upon a hill and all conveyed to the audience via desaturated black and white cinematography. With only glimpses of occasional colour (mainly pale, saturated reds), the film is entirely in black and white and covers one single sunny Sunday in the lives of Micah and Jo, who whilst awkwardly dealing with the aftermath of a one night stand now spend the following day together in search of the American Dream, of black culture and their shared roots, of lust and friendship and common ground in a city in which they remain a statistical and cultural minority.

A lost wallet throws these disparate characters back together after a tense opening to the film whereby no words are spoken by either Micah or Jo for the first three minutes and only then the tension is broken by the host of the party they are quietly leaving from. The first word uttered between the two is an awkward “sorry” before Micah invites Jo for a coffee before also admitting “I’m sorry. It’s kind of embarrassing but I forgot your name”. Sharing a taxi and very little in the way of conversation, their rendezvous is at an end before Jo’s lost wallet intervenes and brings the following two characters together for a day in the sunshine.

The above opening paragraphs are taken from my spoiler free review of "Medicine for Melancholy" I originally penned and published in April 2017 before transferring to my Medium blog site on 19th January 2023 and which can now be read in full and for free (please also consider subscribing for free too!) via my Substack blog site and the original article linked immediately below:

https://ramblingmusings666.substack.com/p/medicine-for-melancholy-2008-124e21684845

This spoiler free review is also integral to Volume 3 of my 7 total volumes of "essential film reviews collection". Each volume is priced at £4.99 but each and every volume can be read for free should you have an Amazon Kindle "Unlimited" package:

Volume 3

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C4JTLRY1

All 7 Volumes

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0C4HZSTTH?ref_=dbs_p_pwh_rwt_anx_a_lnk&storeType=ebooks

https://www.patreon.com/TheBlackfordBookClub
https://www.paypal.me/TheBlackfordBookClub
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/steveblackford

Thanks for watching!

Please "like", subscribe and comment if you wish!

Thank you.