Medicine for Melancholy

A Strike Anywhere presentation of a Baldry Film production. Produced by Justin Barber. Co-producers, Cherie Saulter. Associate producer, Amy Seimetz. Directed, written by Barry Jenkins.

With: Wyatt Cenac, Tracey Heggins.

Charming and stylish "Medicine for Melancholy" reps a promising feature debut for writer-helmer Barry Jenkins. Still, this "Before Sunrise"-like tale of two twentysomething strangers -- here African-American San Franciscans -- who spend an uninterrupted 24-hours-plus together doesn't mine quite enough character depth or drama to leave more than a fleetingly pleasant aftertaste. Amerindie mood pieces this low-key one don't face a welcoming arthouse marketplace these days, but "Medicine" should make friends on the fest circuit, providing a potential career leg-up for Jenkins and major collaborators en route to DVD shelf life as a few tasteful folks' personal fave.

Protags are first glimpsed waking from an apparent drunken-party shag at an impressive Telegraph Hillside S.F. manse. Shrugging off their bleary white host's offer of cereal, they clomp hungover and silent to Noe Valley and a not-much-more-communicative breakfast.

Sharing a cab home, fine-featured, elegant Joanne (Tracey Heggins) exits in the upscale Marina District, making it quite clear she sees no need for further contact with scruffily bearded, amiable Micah (Wyatt Cenac). As the latter slinks back to his downscale Tenderloin neighborhood, he discovers she left her wallet on the taxi floor.

Showing up on her doorstep, he doesn't get much of a welcome. But Joanne's hauteur melts a bit after he sings a ditty from "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood," and she consents to a joint bike ride downtown, where she has an errand to run anyway. This leads to more hanging out and soon enough, both good times and bad.

Running through the pic are issues of S.F.'s methods of combating "urban blight" (which in the '60s basically erased its largest black neighborhood -- at 7%, San Francisco still has the lowest African-American population segment of any U.S. city) and the city's increasing lack of affordability for working-class people today. The film blatantly addresses the issue of affordability when the fictive leads briefly drop in on a meeting of real-life housing activists discussing the possible demise of rent control laws.

But this brief interlude between two strangers without much in common -- at least not so much as Micah would like to think -- is mostly a breezy affair whose looseness has a rather French feel. That's underlined by James Laxton's handsome photography (color muted to near-B&W), some offbeat editing gambits, a soundtrack full of interestingly off-kilter indie pop, and the nicely chosen nonstandard San Francisco locations that capture some of the city's flavor as residents experience it.

Leads are both likable, with Cenac showing some comic spark. Still, without needing to resort to extensive backstory or high drama, the main characters could have been explored a bit more deeply; "Medicine" is a tasty slice of life, but one sliced thin enough to leave one feeling a tad undernourished.

Camera (color, HD), James Laxton; editor, Nat Sanders; music supervisor, Greg O'Bryant. sound, Nikolas Zasimczuk. Reviewed at San Francisco Intl. Film Festival, May 7, 2008. Running time: 88 MIN.

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