Medicine for Melancholy

Last night I stayed in to watch Medicine for Melancholy, Barry Jenkins directorial debut released around this time last year. Intermixed with decided commentary on the racial and political textures of a gentrifying San Francisco, it's the story of two young black adults who wake up to each other the morning after a one night stand. Over the next 24 hours the couple, Micah and Jo, pass through varying stages of intimacy, opening up and shutting down from take to take.

While slow and somewhat forced at points, the film captures the awkward yet charged energy that can pass between two strangers turned instant lovers turned "?" brilliantly. James Laxtons cinematography beautifully frames the subject matter. Desaturated color with touches of honey and rose and ebony give the sense of detachment, unfamiliarity, intimacy, romance all at once. It sets a dreamlike tone for a specific place in time that's not here nor there but exists somewhere inbetween; borrowed moments on loan, just enough for these two to figure out who and what they are to each other.

Is this another fleeting connection or the beginning of something solid? We're not sure and, because we're curious, because we've all lived these moments, we hang in there to see. I surely have lived such an experience, a few times, and I have cherished each one of them. The physical excitement, the intellectual stimulation, the pleasurable anxiety of not knowing what's to come. All of this came back to me as I watched Micah and Jo work through it on screen. The following words emerged, free flow, as the credits rolled...

honey and ebony
new discoveries sweetened by physical attraction
the way we reveal ourselves slowly, with time
nuances peeping out unabashed after enough time has passed together
you take salt with your eggs
he has to walk on the inside of the sidewalk, a quirk you notice and he admits, intrigued that you picked up on this
this might be something
smiles emerging from stoic jawlines
how we can learn from someone new, unknown, fresh
body language relaxing, turning concave and convex in the right direction, in favor of the other
a day that rolls on because you both dread goodbye
too curious to press pause, afraid it might be a full stop
so you invent hunger, find thirst,
space for one more cappuccino, interest in seeing a show you know nothing about
one more stop
cruising to the rhythm of the other, unknown but comforting, magnetic
and you start to buzz below
no longer in need of the safety of public places
you want to be alone with him
then the love scene
confirmed, satiated
all day marathon rolls to night
dinner time
cook or go out
before you know it you're filling roles you didn't know you were auditioning for
leaning over him to turn on the stove, grinding pepper
couple, you, he, we
cool
and then the different light reality casts

I'd recommend you see the film and, if you'd like to share, I'd love to hear the associations it brings for you.