This cinematic debut from Joe Talbot may be an imperfect film, but it has so many distinguishable characteristics and particular eccentricities that it becomes quite impossible to compare it to anything else.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 28, 2024

This is a film that requires San Francisco to feel like its own character, and director Joe Talbot captures the city landscapes with such cinematic immensity.

| Original Score: A | Jul 9, 2024

The Last Black Man in San Francisco is an auspicious first feature, and Talbot and Fails are young artists who posses the talent to convey their ambivalent feelings towards, and the inherent poetry of, “The City by the Bay.”

| Jul 19, 2023

... The movie has quirks that might try your patience a little: its heroes are prone to hipster-ish flights of fancy, yet it offers both fine craftsmanship and comfortable warmth.

| Sep 26, 2022

The movie is a window into the human experience from some truly enlightening perspectives. And even during some of its slower moments it never loses that effect. It makes the film’s final shots more tragic and the sting of it will stick with you for days.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 23, 2022

The Last Black Man in San Francisco is a visionary film that’s an absolute stunner.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 20, 2022

A young man searches for a home in a city that has forgotten him. San Francisco hasn't felt nor looked like this since Hitchcock. A vibrant city in a movie that blurs the line between reality and fiction. Impressive storytelling. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jul 7, 2022

Episode 42: Crawl / The Last Black Man in San Francisco / Chernobyl / Midsommar

| Original Score: 95/100 | Oct 4, 2021

Wonders aloud if Thomas Wolfe was right when he wrote, "You can't go home again."

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 31, 2021

It's an independent film with a difference, but not as emotionally engaging as you'd really like it to be.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 8, 2020

An odd exchange will be followed-up by something truly emotionally resonating, perhaps suggesting that whatever eccentricities are applied are only to make each profound moment that much more so.

| Oct 2, 2020

Gentrification is poetically rendered in this thought-provoking indie starring Jimmie Fails as a man holding onto the home his grandfather built in a changing city.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 3, 2020

As one of the best films of the festival, The Last Black Man in San Francisco reminds you why cinema was invented. With sincere, heartfelt moments that run the spectrum, Talbot's direction is a stellar debut that leaves you breathless.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 3, 2020

It'd be depressing if it weren't so true, but in this watery tableau, director/co-writer Joe Talbot finds the beauty beneath the melancholia.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 28, 2020

Joe Talbot's directorial debut, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, does not stir much emotion in me. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jul 26, 2020

With storybook-like cinematography to a score that has the longingness of memory and urgency to match the characters onscreen, Joe Talbot shows his appreciation for his home city while giving Jimmie Fails' story its just due.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 12, 2020

In terms of more mainstream Hollywood bromance films, The Last Black Man in San Francisco signals a major departure.

| Feb 25, 2020

The film would be an achievement in terms of character and theme alone, but Talbot shows an awareness for imagery that elevates the script even further (co-written with Rob Richert and co-conceived with Fails).

| Feb 13, 2020

The opening 5 minutes alone are cinematic heaven and we can only hope Talbot and Fails return in years to come to tell more stories.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Feb 6, 2020

This is a delicate and thoughtful film, a fine first directing effort by Joe Talbot, with a story written, in part, by Fails himself based on his own experiences.

| Original Score: B | Jan 17, 2020