''Medicine for Melancholy'' is a 2008 independent romantic drama film written and directed by

Barry Jenkins Barry Jenkins (born November 19, 1979) is an American filmmaker. After making his filmmaking debut with the short film ''My Josephine'' (2003), he directed his first feature film '' Medicine for Melancholy'' (2008) for which he received an Inde ...

. The film stars

Wyatt Cenac Wyatt John Foster Cenac Jr. (; born April 19, 1976) is an American comedian, actor, producer, and writer. He was a correspondent and writer for ''The Daily Show'' from 2008 to 2012. He starred in the TBS series ''People of Earth'' and in Barry ...

, Tracey Heggins, and Elizabeth Acker. The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 7, 2008. It was released in a limited release on January 30, 2009, by

IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its ...

Plot

''Medicine for Melancholy'' chronicles the one-day romance of Micah (

) and Jo (Tracey Heggins), two black twenty-somethings who have a one-night stand and end up spending a full day and night together despite Jo's long-distance relationship with a wealthy white gallery owner. The characters wake up in someone else's bed after a party and head their separate ways. Jo leaves her wallet in their shared taxi and they reconnect when he returns it to her at her apartment. Throughout the day, Micah and Jo visit the Museum of the African Diaspora, stumble upon an affordable housing coalition meeting and attend a concert. Venturing around

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, the characters discuss race and gentrification with regard to the low percentage of blacks living in San Francisco. Micah is openly critical of Jo's interracial relationship as he struggles to reconcile his black identity with the predominantly white world of the hipster scene in San Francisco.

Production

Jenkins wrote the film two years prior to its release. ''Medicine for Melancholy'' mainly confronts themes of African American assimilation into "hipster" or "indie" culture. The city of San Francisco also emphasizes African-Americans as the minority, because African-Americans are seven percent of San Francisco's population. Writer and director Barry Jenkins has described the film's two main characters as "playing out a debate back and forth about identity politics". Each of the two main characters embodies an ideology. Jenkins saw the character of Micah as a man who was always building barriers, whereas Jo thinks that race is a limiter.A Cure for the Blues: Medicine for Melancholy, Tribeca
/ref> Accusing Jo of assimilation, Micah strives to reclaim his essential "blackness" as Jo contrastingly claims Micah has a "hang up" about his race and strives to overcome her own. The film includes desaturation of images. Filmmakers went through the film shot by shot and pulled out the majority of color. In an interview, director Barry Jenkins stated that certain scenes in the film have more color to reflect when the characters are not thinking about race or housing issues.

Release

The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 7, 2008. It went on to screen at the

Los Angeles Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...

on June 20, 2008. Shortly after,

acquired distribution rights to the film. It also screened at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

in September, and at the

Mar del Plata International Film Festival The Mar del Plata International Film Festival ( es, Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata) is an international film festival that takes place every November in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina. It is the only competitive feature fes ...

in November where it was nominated for Best Film. It was released in a limited release on January 30, 2009.

Critical reception

Roger Ebert of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...

'' gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, calling the actors "effortlessly engaging" and the direction "assured"; he also noted the film was "beautifully photographed". It was a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' Critics' Pick and nominated for three 2008 Independent Spirit Awards. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an 83% fresh rating.

Accolades

References

External links

* * * * {{Barry Jenkins 2008 directorial debut films 2008 films 2008 independent films 2008 romantic drama films African-American films American independent films American romantic drama films Films directed by Barry Jenkins Films set in museums Films set in San Francisco Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area Films shot in San Francisco Works about gentrification 2000s English-language films 2000s American films