Jenkins delivers a powerful love song

KiKi Layne and Stephan James in If Beale Street Could Talk

Cinema

If Beale Street Could Talk: Directed by Barry Jenkins, Nationwide, 15A,Rating:****

A Private War: Directed by Matthew Heineman, Selected, 15A,Rating:***

Love is cheap in the cinema, particularly at this time of year. Everyone either has it or wants it, or instinctively knows the formula to be applied to find it in 90 minutes. Movie love is a carnival prize; the reward for figuring out a simplified equation. Barry Jenkins’s If Beale Street ...