Moonlight: Sob a Luz do Luar

Moonlight is one of the most beautiful and heart-wrenching films that I have ever seen. Many users are expressing disdain or presumed it to be dull. Yet, to see it as such misses the whole point of the film. Moonlight wasn't intended to overtly wow us or give us knowledge about something we didn't already know. Rather the film allowed us to enter and follow a life that I'm sure many have never considered living. Yes, we know some about poverty, queerness, masculinity, and Blackness individually, but to see the conflict of it all so succinctly woven together allowed the complexity of some folks lives to be seen in an unadulterated way. Moonlight wasn't supposed to give us some grandiose finale or even answers, but simply present a narrative that we often don't see. And that's what makes it so simple, painful, yet outstandingly beautiful.

It's also important to remember that just because you don't understand something, that doesn't mean it is unimportant or invalid. Just because you can't relate to the entire story doesn't mean pieces of it can't teach you something about life. Just because the narrative is one that isn't widely told, doesn't mean it should be disregarded. If you don't understand this film or find it a waste, look deep inside yourself and ask why.

10/10 would recommend.

Wanted to see as many 2016 films as possible, especially those that won or were nominated for the big awards. Took me a while to see 'Moonlight', with the controversy it garnered when it was announced for the Best Picture Oscar and the amount of hate it's got here part of me was wary.

Finally getting round to seeing 'Moonlight', it turned out that it was more than well worth the while and that the wariness was not needed. 'Moonlight' is not a perfect film and may not have been my personal pick for the Best Picture award (for me that was 'La La Land' though that is not a popular opinion it seems). Truly admired what it set out to do and found it a brave and powerful film, despite what the detractors say there is far more to 'Moonlight's' appeal than politics, sexuality and race (clearly trying to find conspiracy theories and reasons for why a film they dislike is loved by others, without taking into account that the film simply just connected to and resonated with those who liked it).

'Moonlight' does end on an anti-climactic note, some of the last act is a bit rushed. A longer length would have helped as a result, it also would have helped make a couple of events in the first act a little clearer and not so choppy.

It may not say much new, despite the ground-breaking concept on paper with the exploration of lives rarely seen on film, and doesn't always have subtlety. Then again it is tackling far from subtle themes and a heavy subject, so that sort of was going to be inevitable.

However, 'Moonlight' is an exceptionally well made film. The cinematography and editing are some of the most eye-pleasing and best of that year, and can't find anything to fault the expertly handled direction. The music is cleverly mixed and has haunting power and fluidity.

Regarding the writing, it is not perfect, at times as said a little heavy-handed and vague in parts, but it is thought-provoking and handles very ambitious, relevant, important themes with power, truth and (mostly) delicacy. The story makes the most of the three act structure, it's handled simply but not simplistically and also handled cleverly and with passion, honesty and intelligence. Found myself relating quite a lot to and being moved significantly by the story and found the film handled a heavy and sensitive subject matter with a lot of relevance and importance today more than admirably.

Can't fault the acting, doing wonders with compellingly real characters and strongly defined character relationships (especially the central one). Much has been made of Maharshala Ali and Naomie Harris and deservedly with two of the best performances that year, Ali especially is extraordinary. It is easy though to overlook Alex R. Hibbert, Trevante Rhodes and Ashton Sanders and one shouldn't, as they are just as worthy (particularly Sanders).

Overall, didn't completely blow me away but very well done and with a lot to admire. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Words cannot express how I felt after watching Moonlight. It's hard to write a review for a film that touches you so powerfully, so emotionally, because there is nothing else you can say aside from just how deeply you felt it. I felt it, possibly in a way I haven't felt a film in years. So simple in its premise, but incredibly written, directed, and acted. It may very well have one of the best final scenes I have ever seen. Something that also stood out that I didn't particularly expect was the amazing cinematography, so free flowing and so acutely able to capture the characters' feelings. This is a film that is not to be missed, a film to be celebrated through and through.

"Moonlight" may very well be a breath of fresh air to others who are tired to death of our culture's obsession with labeling and categorizing everything in an attempt to understand it. If it can't be easily categorized, it's either frightening and something to be opposed to, or it's abnormal and therefore something to be marginalized.

The main conflict at the heart of "Moonlight," a beautiful movie about a young black man's coming of age in poor and drug-afflicted Miami, is our protagonist's inability to define himself in terms that his environment will allow. He doesn't fit into any of the categories available to him, so he sets out to force himself into one that seems like the best option. His name is Chiron, and the movie shows him to us at three stages of his life, portrayed by three different but wonderful actors. As a little boy, he struggles with loneliness and neglect thanks to a crack-addicted mom (played by Naomie Harris) and takes to the first person who offers to be a father figure to him. In a Dickensian twist, this person happens to be a drug dealer who nevertheless offers him sympathy and understanding not to be found anywhere else. The middle section depicts Chiron as a young man navigating his emerging homosexuality and the high school bullying that goes along with it. In the film's final and most breathtaking sequence, we follow Chiron as a man in his twenties to a reunion with a high school friend who gave him his first gay experience and whom he's never been able to completely move on from. This entire sequence is directed, written, and acted with utmost delicacy.

I can't think of a movie in recent memory that puts loneliness and anguish on screen more effectively than "Moonlight." It's a movie that asks us to see life from the perspective of a very specific individual but then draws universal conclusions from it that makes the superficial differences between him and the viewer (I'm not black, I'm not gay, I didn't grow up in a poor urban environment) melt away until you feel deep compassion and sympathy for a fellow human being who is doing what we all are -- navigating the complexities of living on this world and making the best of it we can.

Grade: A

After reading the reviews, and seeing Stuckmanns review on YouTube (a reviewer I nearly always agree with), I not only wanted to really love this movie - I expected to. But alas, no. Certainly it has some really good things about it - the cinematography is beautiful, incredible performances from just about all of the cast, but the story? I mean sure, it is meaningful and I guess important to a degree, but it was just a bit thin on the ground. Young boy, becomes a teenager, then a grown man - and he is gay and has lived a lonely life because of it. Not exactly mind-blowing. And it had one of those really frustrating endings - you know the type, the ones that just end and you are like "Eh? Is that it....? Really...??!!"

But as I said, it does have many plus points, and it is certainly worth watching - just personally after all I had read I was expecting to be blown away, and I certainly wasn't.