Moonlight - Barry Jenkins's 2016 Oscar-winning drama about a gay black man growing up in a black community in Miami.
This was interesting on various levels. It's obviously a good film (and I'll add that I was aided by reviews I read afterwards to realize some of these aspects) - there is a lot of great acting (I'm a fan of Mahershala Ali in particular, across a whole bunch of movies), interesting use of camera, many strong shots, good music, and so and so forth. The plot is also well construed, addressing numerous themes (in particular masculinity and sexuality), and especially the main character's transformation in the third act is a strong plot point (from
a lanky, awkward guy to
a buff dude[/ispoiler that [ispoilerdominates those around him, all to
avoid appearing gay or
uncertain - yes, I like these ispoiler tags
). Moreover, the film is historically important due to being, apparently, 'the first LGBTQ-themed mass-marketed feature film with an all-black cast'.
So, great - but it didn't do much for me. (Or my wife, for that matter.) I could see its qualities (or some of them, anyway), but the film just didn't much move or captivate me. Which is interesting actually: it probably matters here that I'm a white, heterosexual male, and therefore pretty far removed from the film's key themes and concerns. I guess that's similar to how women, racialized populations, and many others often feel when they watch yet another one of those white male-dominated, heterosexually focused films that constitute the vast, vast, VAST majority of mainstream cinema
.
So I am not too sure how to rate this. But I will say that I personally liked Jenkins's If Beale Street Could Talk better (which is a great film). I gave that a 4/5, so I guess this was a 3/5 for me.
