Moonlight

Okay, so in 2017, all it takes to win the Oscar for Best Picture is to crudely edit three stages in the life of an uninteresting black gay man, intersperse them with a string of the most overused social clichés about a junkie mother, a wise mentor/dealer, or school bullying, and gild them with a poetic scene about being cleansed in the waves of the sea; all of that without breaking down a single line of the narrative so that the viewer would have a chance to become attached to the main character or to know what is actually being primarily communicated to them. For a story about coming to terms with homosexuality, the film has hardly any sexual tension (well, thank God, actually) and it’s too telegraphic and unsurprising for a confession about adapting to one's environment. The only really pleasing things are the believable actors, led by Naomie Harris, who ironically would be the only one deserving an Oscar, and the polished cinematography, whose synergy with the chilling soundtrack builds a good 80% of the overall depressing atmosphere. My eye was especially pleased by the beauty Janelle Monáe, although here she looked a bit too..... cold. Very weak 3* (02/27/2017)

A homosexual black man in a successful film? Some honest Czechs will pop a vein. To me Moonlight is simply a good film and a quality drama. Though its theme naturally works like automatic award bait, I didn’t feel any cynicism or insincerity from it. It makes for a pretty unpleasant viewing that is painful in many ways, but to be fully satisfied I needed a somewhat stronger final catharsis. (02/05/2017)

8 (!!!) Oscar nominations for this? You've gotta be kidding me. My giving this such a low rating might surprise you, but when a film is nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, my expectations naturally go up. If I had casually watched the movie outside of the Oscar season, I might not have been so harsh in my review, but now I just can't help it. I'll start with the positives. Ali's performance is great. And that’s about it, because what follows is a list of negatives. The theme is okay, although seen a thousand times and filmed a million times before, but fine. What was an unpleasant surprise was the performance of Naomie Harris, which was simply lousy and did not fit the movie at all, and her Oscar (and Golden Globes and BAFTA) nomination is actually a total insult to all the unnominated actresses. Alright, let’s just get this over with. Absolutely illogical, some of the storylines fall flat, some would-be artistically effective cuts, a desperately pandering soundtrack (déjà vu of last year's Danish Girl). I could go on. In the competition of similar-style movies, Moonlight clearly loses to Hidden Figures. Above all, what I want to say is that all the nominations that Moonlight received after the "all-white Oscars" controversy would have been a hundred times more deserved by Straight Outta Compton last year. (02/22/2017)

I liked Manchester by the Sea better. It was emotionally richer and the relationships were rendered in more detail. Moonlight speaks of delicate things in a harsh environment in a commendably delicate way, but also too elliptically. It uses the poetics of artsy visuals, slow motion and static face shots where it could have expressed itself openly. I recognize the director’s skills in guiding the actors as well as the actors’ quality performances. I enjoyed watching the lead character’s transformation in three different stages of his life, examining his inner development. But I’m unmoved. The Oscar fervor about Moonlight is more political than deserved, a reaction to last year’s racial fiasco. Despite that, it’s good that it happened, if only because of the current moods in the world spread by its leaders. (02/27/2017)

Tailor-made black Oscar-bait. An attempt at a great little film that tries to portray the plight of an exceptional individual on the edge of standard society and his integration into mainstream life despite his gay "handicap". Not that the narrative was impersonal and the camera twists unimpressive, but as a gay-themed film, Brokeback Mountain was a class act. As a story of childhood and growing up in a black community, it's good, but the really resonant scenes are few and far between, and there are quite a few clichés, especially when it comes to the outlining of the secondary characters (a bad mother, problems with classmates). Thumbs up especially for the solid performances and interestingly laid out story stages, where paradoxically the most important events happen outside the viewer. There are thematically similar films that are far fuller in feeling and more nuanced in their relationships. (04/08/2017)