Moonlight

So I'm sure by this time, everyone has heard about the flub that happened during the Oscars and I'm sure everyone reading this has their opinions on not only who should have won the Oscars but how the flub was handled. I've read articles claiming that the whole thing was systemic racism at work, others have just an honest mistake.

Myself, I wanted to check this movie out before it became a controversy, now I wanted to hit the iron while it's hot and look at the movie outside flub of the Oscars and give my honest thoughts on the movie that won Best Picture, Moonlight.

Moonlight follows the story of a man by the name of Chiron over the course of his life, segmenting into 3 parts, when he is a child, when he's a teenager, and when he is an adult.

If you're reading that and think that this premise sounds a lot like the movie Boyhood except without the 13 year production timeline, you'd be partly right. In a way, Moonlight is the version of Boyhood except the character is black... and gay... and lives in Miami... and has a crack addict mother...

So yeah, really the only connection to Boyhood is that it follows this kid from childhood all the way to adulthood. It's not the best comparison but it's a good frame of reference.

The story of Chiron starts when he's a kid (played by Alex Hibbert). He is a strange kid that gets picked on for being different. He meets a drug dealer by the name of Juan (played by Mahershala Ali) and gets taken in by Juan and his girlfriend Teresa (played by Janelle Monae). The couple become second parents for Chiron as his mother (played by Naomie Harris) is a drug addict who is verbally abusive to Chiron.

I do want to talk about the performances in this first act because there are some really good ones. Mahershala Ali actually won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Juan. I am personally a big fan of Mahershala Ali. I thought he was tragically underutilized in Luke Cage, and I have to think that he was tragically underutilized in this film. I know the film is centered on Chiron and the character of Juan supports the story not the actor playing it, but I would have liked to see more of Juan in this movie.

Janelle Monae does a good job as well. I've only known her as the crazy moves singer but this past year she was in both this film and Hidden Figures, two Oscar nominated films. I get the feeling she is still at the start of her acting career but these are not bad movies to start on. I'm actually interested in seeing more of her in the future.

And then there is Naomie Harris.

This carries over to the rest of the movie and Naomie Harris's role throughout the film as Paula, Chiron's mother. But holy crap. I used to only know her as Money Penny in the new Bond films and as the voodoo witch who turns into a giant crab person in Pirates of the Carribean but then I started seeing her in more films like Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom and of course this. She's a solid actress. I want to see her in a lot more because it seems like she is just going to keep on doling out these good performances. The best part of the movie, in my opinion is when the relationship between her and Chiron comes to a climax and both Harris and the actor who plays Chiron as an adult knock it out of the park with that confrontation.

I think out of the three actors that play Chiron, Alex Hibbert might have the weakest performance of them. Now this isn't saying its a bad performance. The kid is pretty young in this movie and it's understandable since he's a kid actor that he wouldn't have as strong of a performance as the other two actors playing Chiron. I just thought that all young Chiron did was kind of stare and stay silent while things happened around him. Again, it's not bad and it does create a baseline for the other two actors who play him. But there is a reason the focus is more on the people around Chiron in the first act and there's a reason why the center of the first act is almost more on Juan than it is on Chiron.

Then the movie fast forwards to Chiron while he's in high school and he starts to come to terms with his sexuality and figuring out who he is as a person.

He still is being bullied for just being who he is but it starts to escalate. Ashton Sanders plays Chiron in his teen years and this kid is really the star of the entire film. A lot of the film is centered on his teen experiences and Sanders has the opportunity to develop the character the best out of all three people playing Chiron.

I won't say too much because I don't want to give away what happens as it is the events in the movie that really make it powerful, especially those that happen in his teen years. But Ashton Sanders gives a pretty good performance.

And then there's the third act where Chiron is an adult and the story finally comes to a close.

Trevante Rhoades plays Chiron when he reaches adulthood and I actually was really drawn in by his character as an adult. An essential part of the story is Chiron's relationship to his friend Kevin (played by Jaden Piner, Jharrel Jerome, and Andre Holland over the course of the three acts). I thought it was fascinating that at the beginning of the third act, Chiron puts on a bit of a front and he doesn't seem like the same character but then when he reconnects with Kevin you can see that baseline that Alex Hibbert created in the first act come back and this hard adult sudden reverts back to the child we saw in the first act. There is so much about all three performances that blend so well together that again I have to say, it's Boyhood done better.

But again, because the character is very introverted and quiet, a lot of the film is him just staring and not saying anything. There's a lot of character that can be discovered by looks and non verbal acting but I felt like I needed some dialogue from this character and it was actually really weird seeing him talk, especially when he spends most of the movie not really saying anything.

It reminds me of Drive.

Remember that art house film where Ryan Gosling just stood around and stared with that "Hey Gurl" look the entire time? The main problem I had with that was that without at least some dialogue, it was very hard to discover a character when all he was doing was staring into the camera. The same can be said about Chiron in Moonlight.

The other thing about Moonlight was how it couldn't really decide on whether or not it was an arthouse film or not. There are a couple of moments that the frame goes into this really artistic mode and it did remind me of Drive a little bit, especially when they start playing classical music over really dramatic moments, it felt a little pretentious at times for me.

The difference, and the reason I like Moonlight more than I like Drive is that it does jump back into a cohesive narrative that makes sense and doesn't rely on that arthouse feel that Drive did.

And even the moments where it's quiet and it's just met with stares, I think Moonlight does a really good job at sending it's message across to it's viewers. Just make sure that you are totally awake during this movie because I could imagine falling asleep during this movie.

Last critique I'll put on the movie is that I felt like it just kind of ended. I didn't feel like there was much of a climax or a big emotional moment, the movie just kind of stops. Going back to the arthouse feel of the film, I felt it was more of an artistic ending than an actual ending and I wasn't the biggest fan of it.

I think the main appeal of the movie is it's message and the story that it's telling. Moonlight is the first movie to win an Oscar for Best Picture that is centered on the issues of the LGBT community. It does have a poignant message and I understand why people are drawn to it, especially if it speaks to them personally. I think for me personally, the movie doesn't speak to me the way it does for others for multiple reasons. I don't connect to this story personally because I'm a straight white guy. That doesn't mean I don't see the importance and the significance of the story and there's absolutely nothing to relate to, I just didn't have a personal connection to this story the way I think other people did. On top of that, I've mentioned the arthouse feel to it and how I saw it as a little bit pretentious at times.

Screen Junkies did an honest trailer for the Oscars and mentioned how Moonlight hits all the Oscar bait expectations checklist and the joke title for the movie was "All the Oscar Things". I can't help but agree that this movie has all the flags needed for an Oscar film and to me it comes off as a little bit pretentious at times. Now I think that the movie is more focused on telling the story than it is on winning awards, but there is that Oscar Bait feel to it that makes me shy away from really connecting to the film.

Moonlight is without a doubt a good movie. It is without a doubt well made and it is for sure a milestone, especially when it comes to the subject matter and the historical context it comes out in.

I can only compare it to La La Land because that's the only other Best Picture nominee that I've seen and if I'm comparing the two it's very difficult. On one hand, Moonlight definitely takes on a more poignant and powerful message whereas La La Land is more light hearted and just more fun and care free but overall trite.

Moonlight has more moments that feel like actors are acting and emoting whereas La La Land, while it may not have as memorable performances, again just feels fun.

I think it's pretty obvious that I enjoyed La La Land more than Moonlight and the truth is, La La Land just has that re-watchability factor to it.  I'm going to buy La La Land on Itunes and re-watch it because I had more fun with that film than I did with Moonlight. Moonlight isn't to the level 12 Years a Slave was in that you watch it once and that's really all you need to get the experience, but I don't see myself bored and wanting to pop in a story about a kid getting bullied because he's gay.

Overall, it really depends on what you prefer and what your qualifications are for what should be considered Best Picture. Should Best Picture be about most powerful message the movie is trying to put across or should it be about technique and how well done the movie is. Performances come into play two which I would unequivocally give to Moonlight so maybe that's the deciding factor.

I think the important part I would want to suggest to people is not to pit these two movies against one another like one is the right choice and one is the bad guy. You can like both these films. If you enjoy La La Land more than Moonlight that doesn't make you a racist and if you like Moonlight more than La La Land that doesn't make you a buzz kill. They're two very different films and since film is subjective, you can enjoy one and not like the other for whatever reason.

Overall, I recognize the accomplishment that Moonlight is. It's a well done movie with a powerful message. It is not a movie I am probably ever going to watch again. Do I think it deserved to win Best Picture? Well, I am going to be trying to knock out as many Oscar nominated films in the next few days in order to see what it compared to but based on other Best Picture winners, I don't think it's as strong of a winner as we've had in the past. That doesn't negate the message or the merits the film does have, I just don't think it's the strongest Best Picture Winner out there.

But what did you think? Was Moonlight actually the Best Picture of 2016? What was your favorite movie of 2016? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get your updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.