A chronicle of the childhood, adolescence and burgeoning adulthood of a young, African-American, gay man growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami.
Stars Mahershala Ali, Shariff Earp, Duan Sanderson
Directed by Barry Jenkins
Year 2016
So you might be wondering why I only gave it a 3 eyeball rating? If you know my movie-watching style, you know that some of the important ones are also the ones that are the hardest to view. This is one of those films. It’s not truly tragic; just rough, raw, and real. That doesn’t make it bad, quite the opposite. It’s message needs to be heard, loudly and with no sugar-coating. The story goes out to give a living narrative to the expectations and tribulations of growing up in Liberty City, Florida.
You can almost swear the characters you meet in this film really exist as they are written and portrayed just as you should imagine them in reality. The cinematography is brilliant, giving a gritty feel and realistic senses. Camera angles go in and out of focus and sometimes just seem weird. I believe this added to it’s point of almost looking through the eyes and mind of the characters. I was a bit bothered by the pandering quiet moments, but I think that is to take in the main reason of the film. It is to be thought provoking on passing situations that have extreme lasting effects.
This film overall deserves it’s award for how on point it’s focus was and how it achieved what it really set out to be. Also, I know La La Land was super set up, but I think they decided to go important this year with a story that actually needs to be heard. Far too often we vote and swoon over the pretty and comfortable, not wanting to go to the dark places. Moonlight shows us what we don’t want to see, but perhaps it’s for the better that we do. At least once.