Passes the Bechdel test
If Beale Street Could Talk
2018. Directed by Barry Jenkins, written by Barry Jenkins and James Baldwin.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
9 women characters. 9 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 3 scenes out of 85. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
African-American teen sweethearts Fonny and Tish are ripped apart when Fonny is wrongly arrested for the rape of a Puerto Rican woman because of the machinations of a racist cop. While seeking justice for Fonny, pregnant Tish relies on her Harlem community, including her sister, mother Sharon, and future mother-in-law.
- Released
- 25 Dec 2018
- Genres
- Drama, Romance
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.1 / 10
- Metascore
- 87 / 100
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 108 wins & 194 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Fonny 154 lines, man
- Tish 138 lines, woman
- Sharon 110 lines, woman
- Ernestine 47 lines, woman
- Joseph 43 lines, man
- Daniel 19 lines, man
- Frank 17 lines, man
- Hayward 17 lines, man
- Victoria 16 lines, woman
- Mrs. Hunt 14 lines, woman
Full cast, 30 people
- KiKi Layne as Tish Rivers
- Stephan James as Alonzo "Fonny" Hunt
- Regina King as Sharon Rivers
- Colman Domingo as Joseph Rivers
- Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Mrs. Hunt
- Michael Beach as Frank Hunt
- Finn Wittrock as Hayward
- Brian Tyree Henry as Daniel Carty
- Emily Rios as Victoria Rogers
- Teyonah Parris as Ernestine Rivers
- Ebony Obsidian as Adrienne Hunt
- Dominique Thorne as Sheila Hunt
- Ed Skrein as Officer Bell
- Pedro Pascal as Pietro Alvarez
- Dave Franco as Levy
- Ethan Barrett as Young Fonny
- Milanni Mines as Young Tish
- Diego Luna as Pedrocito
- Kaden Byrd as Alonzo Jr
- Bobby Conte Thornton as Italian Punk
- Marcia Jean Kurtz as Italian Grocer
- Carl Parker as Black Cat #1
- Shabazz Ray as Black Cat #2
- Michael Warner as White Man
- Aurora Collado as Abuela
- Carlos De La Hoz as Dancing Lady
- Darryl Reuben Hall as Harlem Resident (uncredited)
- Doris McCarthy as Upscale Shopper (uncredited)
- Ronnie Magri as Subway Rider (uncredited)
- Vicki Jo Costanzo as Jail Visitor (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 5% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 85
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 to 4 | 17 | 7 |
| 5 to 6 | 17 | 0 |
| 7 to 8 | 7 | 5 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 to 12 | 14 | 1 |
| 13 to 14 | 21 | 16 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 to 18 | 3 | 7 |
| 19 to 20 | 24 | 10 |
| 21 to 22 | 38 | 9 |
| 23 to 24 | 10 | 23 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 1 |
| 27 to 28 | 31 | 42 |
| 29 to 30 | 17 | 26 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 0 |
| 33 to 34 | 0 | 23 |
| 35 to 36 | 5 | 11 |
| 37 to 38 | 9 | 0 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 0 |
| 41 to 42 | 33 | 0 |
| 43 to 44 | 0 | 18 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 0 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 0 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 0 |
| 51 to 52 | 4 | 15 |
| 53 to 54 | 2 | 12 |
| 55 to 56 | 9 | 14 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 6 |
| 59 to 60 | 1 | 0 |
| 61 to 62 | 10 | 7 |
| 63 to 64 | 3 | 0 |
| 65 to 66 | 0 | 0 |
| 67 to 68 | 1 | 0 |
| 69 to 70 | 14 | 8 |
| 71 to 72 | 0 | 0 |
| 73 to 74 | 0 | 0 |
| 75 to 76 | 36 | 0 |
| 77 to 78 | 8 | 10 |
| 79 to 80 | 2 | 4 |
| 81 to 82 | 0 | 4 |
| 83 to 84 | 0 | 0 |
| 85 to 85 | 5 | 13 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
SHARON: About three months. ERNESTINE: Yeah. That's what I figured.
ERNESTINE: Un-bow your head sister. SHARON: To the newborn.
ERNESTINE: She ain’t going to forget it. I’ll whoop her ass if she do. SHARON: But she’s pregnant! ERNESTINE: Shall we dress for Mrs. Hunt?
ERNESTINE: Then you better have some coffee, come on in here. SHARON: Now where have you two been ‘till this hour of the morning? SHARON: Don’t you know better than to be behaving like that? I declare, we was just about to call the police.
TISH: Disappeared? But... SHARON: How can she just disappear?
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 54 are women's.
342 lines from women, 293 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
9 women and 12 men in the cast. 9 women and 11 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 2 of 665.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 30 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 47% of the words (4,266), men 53% (4,744). Women have 54% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
28
Two men
17
Exhibit F: behind the camera
6 of the 15 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 34% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Barry Jenkins (man)
- Written by
- Barry Jenkins (man)
- From the novel by
- James Baldwin (man)
- Produced by
- Adele Romanski (woman), Dede Gardner (woman), Jeremy Kleiner (man), Barry Jenkins (man), Sara Murphy (woman)
- Shot by
- James Laxton (man)
- Edited by
- Joi McMillon (woman), Nat Sanders (man)
- Music by
- Nicholas Britell (man)
- Production design by
- Mark Friedberg (man)
- Costumes by
- Caroline Eselin (woman)
- Cast by
- Cindy Tolan (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
12 women, 8 men, 11 not listed
-
Art
5 women, 4 men, 15 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 17 men, 5 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
3 women, 5 men, 10 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 5 men, 9 not listed
-
Visual Effects
2 women, 2 men, 5 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Editing
1 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 37 on average. Men: 40 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
KiKi Layne 27, Emily Rios 29, Teyonah Parris 31, Regina King 47, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor 49
Men
Stephan James 24, Finn Wittrock 34, Brian Tyree Henry 36, Colman Domingo 49, Michael Beach 55
Exhibit H: the money
It made 1.7 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $12 million
- Box office
- $20.6 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 85 scenes and 665 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
