Moonlight (2016)

Of my many minor and major gripes with Moonlight, none of them bother me so much as the knowledge that the film itself is overpraised. I'm happy for Barry Jenkins, I'm happy for the...

Of my many minor and major gripes with Moonlight, none of them bother me so much as the knowledge that the film itself is overpraised. I'm happy for Barry Jenkins, I'm happy for the cast, I appreciate that this is a big moment for African American cinema and LGBTQ cinema, and it's good, but it's just not Best Picture good.

There are the smaller details, like Chiron's mother arriving home precisely at the moment that he gets dropped off by Juan or the fact that Janelle Monae's accent sounded weird.

Naomie Harris is good here, very good even, but I don't think that her character is spot on. The "make me 'feel good" line reminds me of the desperate sex scene from Monster's Ball, or one of the addicts from The Wire. The fact that she's hysterical in virtually 90% of her time on screen leaves little room for nuance. Even if you disagree, at least we can all see that she's hardly playing the most original crackhead that we've ever seen. Not that either Harris or Monae is in the film very much; this impermanence of the characters in Moonlight, which represents the impermanence of other elements of the film, is one of its main weaknesses. For example, Mahershala Ali's Juan is integral to the first act, and then unexpectedly vanishes. His disappearance is later explained (with less than a sentence) by a secondary character, and isn't confirmed.

Despite it being a fixture of the movie that there are different leads, Chiron and Kevin's 1 & 2 are too physically distinct from the number 3's .

The imperfect casting doesn't distract from the fact that all 6 of the leads are capable actors. One of the best things about Moonlight is that a mixture of camera closeups, and good direction, has remarkably brought the same mannerisms out of them. They mostly look like they could be the same person.

Moonlight works in places, but Jenkins has favoured conveying particular moments instead of a clear message or story. In fact, this was one of the popular criticisms of 2016's Batman Vs Superman, which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Cy_Qlh7VM, in which Nerdrwriter basically argues that Zack Snyder neglected scenes of the movie, just so that he could create nice cinematic 'moments'. When chiron is taken to the beach by Juan and taught to swim, the height of the camera, and its angles, combined with the music, create a really vivid picture. It's just that at the point we see it, we don't know that the beach and the ocean will become very important symbols in the story. Even though it's a powerful scene, how do we know what it means? If it's just a boy being taught how to swim, then what's with all the fuss? If it means more, then how do we know?

Love at the beach, a fight at school, a mother shouting at her son. Barry Jenkins wants you to see all of this, feel it, experience it. And these moments are all brilliantly crafted, (Moonlight does have some of the best cinematography and lighting combination use that I've ever seen) but what do they mean? What's Barry trying to tell us? To me, it felt almost as if it strived for the profound too often and too hard, and, just for the sake of it. These 'moments' are beautiful, and I really do enjoy them, but they only work when the rest of the film works. They otherwise come across a little self indulgent.

These moments come across as self indulgent, for example, when you keep fiddling around with the score. In what feels like every other scene, even from the opening, or even just every couple of minutes you're going to hear a clip of the score, and it's hard to complain about, because it's nice, and actually fits the aesthetic that the cinematography is creating, but the more it continues, the more It feels that it's been put in there just to support the 'moments' that Jenkins insists on during the film, and not because it really enhances the plot or characters.

I think that Manchester By The Sea is a better film. It's excellently acted, written and shot, but it's also good because it's very down to earth, the plot is coherent, and it isn't reaching for the spectacular in every other scene, but when it does go for it, it really grabs you, and Albertini's Adagio helps to get you there. For all the supposed stereotype breaking, Moonlight does have its fair share. It's a guy with dreadlocks and a gold chain who happens to be Chiron's high school antagonist, and half-baked personification of hypermasculinity or something. When he's the only notable character with dreadlocks in the film, it has to be intentional. There's a black girl whose face is never shown, and only role in the movie is an after dark sex scene by the beach, not to mention the 4 separate black drug dealers in the movie. In fact, thinking about it, it's a wonder that Jenkins managed to resist having a single gun in the entire film. Kudos.

Later in the film, Chiron strangely becomes a carbon copy of Juan, his father figure from act one (although who's to say whether not it is accurate to refer to him as a father figure because we know nothing of what period of time they spent together, or when or how he died. Was he killed 2 days or 2 years later? Was he killed in a gang shootout or did he contract tuberculosis?) but what's the message here? That we become our fathers? That time repeats itself? To me at least, it's puzzling why you would draw such obvious parallels between Act 1 Juan, and Act 3 Chiron, and then not explore that part of his character....at all. This nostalgia connected with 'the song' in Act 3 suggests that Chiron and Kevin had a closer relationship than was actually inferred on screen. This irritated me. 'The song' isn't played at all, spoken about, or referred to throughout Acts 1 & 2, until Act 3, where we're led to believe that it's some kind of pillar of their relationship. On top of everything else, the film ends abruptly. There's no climax or buildup to the conclusion. It offers no resolution, no catharsis and no lesson. What was the point of it all? Why did I wait 2 whole hours for something to actually happen? I don't actually believe that everybody is truly enamoured with Moonlight. I think though, that there's an emperor's new clothes element, and that people are acutely aware that they risk appearing bigoted if they don't like it. Watching it without the inhibitor of expectation is helpful. It helped me see the movie for what It was instead of being disappointed or frustrated at not seeing the masterpiece I was initially hoping for. In other words, I enjoyed it more on second appraisal. On some level I don't even feel as though Moonlight is even substantive enough to warrant an analysis such as this one. Has Barry just taken (what he's admitted are) a few of his own life experiences, dramatised them, and used them as a way of stroking his own ego on the big screen?