Medicine for Melancholy
Director: Barry Jenkins
Writer: Barry Jenkins
Cast: Wyatt Cenac, Tracey Heggins
Seen on: 28.12.2025

Plot:
After a party in a fancy house, Micah (Wyatt Cenac) and Jo (Tracey Heggins) wake up next to each other. They barely know each other, but Micah convinces her to share first the return journey, then breakfast, then the rest of the day. They explore San Francisco, each other, a possible relationship.

Medicine for Melancholy is a very assured debut, both stylistically and in terms of creating an entrancing atmosphere, while retaining a certain rawness that often comes with a first film.

Medicine for Melancholy feels like a Black take on mumblecore. While white mumblecore is often almost aggressively apolitical (well, as apolitical as something can be), Jenkins acknowledges, though, that the Black experience is inherently politicized. So, as Micah and Jo meander aimlessly through the day, questions of race come up just as naturally as questions of (affordable) housing. Marginalized people just generally don’t have the luxury of pretending they are unaffected by policies.

And I found the points that both make rather interesting, with Micah being more in the camp of „everything is about race“ and Jo more in the camp of „that is reductive and exaggerated“. Interestingly, gender never really seems to enter their discussions (possibly because Jo isn’t as outspokenly political as Micah, or maybe on a meta level, because Jenkins is a man and it just doesn’t feel as relevant for him).

The discussion about gentrification and lack of affordable housing feels just as current today as back when the film was shot, which would have been shocking, if it wasn’t so expected. But within the film, it is only one part of the very loving look Jenkins takes at San Francisco. The film is, for the most part, a declaration of love for the city. As we watch Micah and Jo (possibly) fall in love, the audience is invited to fall in love with San Francisco ourselves.

The film is shot with barely any color, the images desaturated so much, I actually thought it was entirely black and white for a while. It gives the film even more of an artistic, indie feeling that also marks it as a debut. I quite liked it, even if it is trying very hard, maybe too hard. But always with charm and style.

Summarizing: interesting.