"It seems like this city just pisses you off," Joanne (Tracey Heggins) tells Micah (Wyatt Cenac), speaking of San Francisco in the 2008 romance Medicine for Melancholy.
"I love this city," Micah replies. "I hate this city, but I love this city. San Francisco's beautiful. You shouldn't have to be upper-middle class to be a part of that."
As audiences greet Moonlight with rapturous praise — likewise, SFist called the film one of the best of the year — fans are returning to director Barry Jenkins's debut film and such prescient observations like the above in regard to its setting. Here, for the historical record, is SFist's review of the film. Be it also noted that Rain Jokinen, SFist film critic and native San Francisco columnist, named it among her favorite depictions of the city.
In an article about Jenkins, The Fader recalls that the filmmaker was living in San Francisco at the time and produced the feature with a $15,000 loan from a film school friend. The story of a one-night stand in the light of day, Medicine for Melancholy also addresses blackness in a city whose black population has dwindled.
“Movies haven’t really been something I’ve enjoyed making, in part because none have ever been as enjoyable as [Medicine] was,” Cenac told the Fader. “It seems like a good director is one who can recognize what they have in front of them and use those specific materials to make something good. Taking what he needs and reshaping it into something we can use.”
Medicine For Melancholy was greeted as an achievement by many critics. "I stayed up till two in the morning last night, watching Medicine for Melancholy," wrote Ta-Nehisi Coates in the Atlantic. "I think Negroes should see this movie, and then show it to their teen-age kids. It's been a long time since I've seen black people, in any form, depicted as beautifully as Barry Jenkins does in his feature debut. I like to say this a lot, but 'beautiful' is not synonymous with 'pretty.'"
He called particular attention to this scene:
