Moonlight is the 2017 Best Picture Winner, directed by Barry Jenkins on an incredibly small budget of just 1.5 million dollars.
It tells the story of a young, African-American, gay man called Chiron growing up in a rough neighbourhood in Miami, touching upon subjects of homosexuality, being bullied and being raised by a drug-addicted mother. The story itself is split into 3 main parts which revolve around the different age brackets of Chiron's life; childhood, adolescence and adulthood.
While the film promotes an all-black cast starring House of Cards & Luke Cage's, Mahershala Ali and Spectre's, Naomie Harris, the stand out performance is most definitely Aston Saunders who portrays Chiron during the second part of the film, through his teenage years. He perfectly captures the mannerisms and vulnerability of the character set out by young Alex R. Hibbert who plays Chiron in the first part of the film. I have to applaud the casting director who paired these two together as it works really well, so much so that you can completely believe the time jump between ages; it feels very real, almost like you're watching a 'Boyhood' styled documentary.
For the most part, I enjoyed Moonlight, it instantly caught my attention with interesting and unusual camera work. Every shot appears to be well thought-out, allowing the story to be shown beautifully through the lens. The look and tone of film is spot on, the director has used a high contrast between light & dark to really capture the vivid 'Miami' colours while setting a mood of depression, loneliness and violence. Moonlight knows exactly what it is and never deviates from this with any unnecessary subplots or an unbelievable third act that we come to expect from 'Hollywood' of late.
Ultimately though, I feel the film is too slow and mainly let down by its story. It crawls along without a great deal happening which is surprising given its 1 hour and 51 minute run time. It never quite reaches the level of excitement I had hoped for given the amount of hype the film had received during the awards season.
The issues that are raised are current and interesting living in today's society but I feel they could have been explored in greater depth. It has a lot to say without ever really saying it, which is a great shame.
We never truly experience the full pain and heart-ache of being raised by a drug-addicted mother or difficulty in discovering your sexuality and consequently being bullied at school. Perhaps it should have focused on one time period of Chiron's life and/ or covered only one of the many issues that the story raises instead of trying to cover them all? As a result the film leaves you feeling quite empty and thinking the story of Chiron could have been told better.
Overall though, it is a good film, just a little disappointing. For all the faults or issues I had with it, I found myself engaged and unable to look away which is certainly down to the superb performances and direction displayed throughout. It's definitely worth watching for these elements alone but I wouldn't particularly recommend it as a 'must see' as I believe a lot of people could find it slow and lose interest quickly.
It tells the story of a young, African-American, gay man called Chiron growing up in a rough neighbourhood in Miami, touching upon subjects of homosexuality, being bullied and being raised by a drug-addicted mother. The story itself is split into 3 main parts which revolve around the different age brackets of Chiron's life; childhood, adolescence and adulthood.
While the film promotes an all-black cast starring House of Cards & Luke Cage's, Mahershala Ali and Spectre's, Naomie Harris, the stand out performance is most definitely Aston Saunders who portrays Chiron during the second part of the film, through his teenage years. He perfectly captures the mannerisms and vulnerability of the character set out by young Alex R. Hibbert who plays Chiron in the first part of the film. I have to applaud the casting director who paired these two together as it works really well, so much so that you can completely believe the time jump between ages; it feels very real, almost like you're watching a 'Boyhood' styled documentary.
For the most part, I enjoyed Moonlight, it instantly caught my attention with interesting and unusual camera work. Every shot appears to be well thought-out, allowing the story to be shown beautifully through the lens. The look and tone of film is spot on, the director has used a high contrast between light & dark to really capture the vivid 'Miami' colours while setting a mood of depression, loneliness and violence. Moonlight knows exactly what it is and never deviates from this with any unnecessary subplots or an unbelievable third act that we come to expect from 'Hollywood' of late.
Ultimately though, I feel the film is too slow and mainly let down by its story. It crawls along without a great deal happening which is surprising given its 1 hour and 51 minute run time. It never quite reaches the level of excitement I had hoped for given the amount of hype the film had received during the awards season.
The issues that are raised are current and interesting living in today's society but I feel they could have been explored in greater depth. It has a lot to say without ever really saying it, which is a great shame.
We never truly experience the full pain and heart-ache of being raised by a drug-addicted mother or difficulty in discovering your sexuality and consequently being bullied at school. Perhaps it should have focused on one time period of Chiron's life and/ or covered only one of the many issues that the story raises instead of trying to cover them all? As a result the film leaves you feeling quite empty and thinking the story of Chiron could have been told better.
Overall though, it is a good film, just a little disappointing. For all the faults or issues I had with it, I found myself engaged and unable to look away which is certainly down to the superb performances and direction displayed throughout. It's definitely worth watching for these elements alone but I wouldn't particularly recommend it as a 'must see' as I believe a lot of people could find it slow and lose interest quickly.