Moonlight

Moonlight is a fragile and sensitive film about the wounds of adolescence and the difficult climb out of the fortresses that we build around ourselves against the pain, which applies to everyone, regardless of ethnic or sexual identity. For some individuals, however, it is even more difficult and painful because of their surroundings. The environment of the African-American community in poor neighbourhoods is by no means exceptional in this respect, but it is certainly meaningful due to what we see in terms of masculine patterns of behaviour and roles anywhere else in the world. In his outstanding screenplay, Barry Jenkins explores the theme of personal identity through three time planes and the three names of the main protagonist, which he typically never chose for himself, but at the same time tries to live with. Not one of them describes him, however, and the tension arising from whether he is able to answer the question of who is in the end is thus even more agonising. Moonlight is one of the few films that truly deserves the problematic Oscar for Best Film, as it does not reflect any contemporary trends, campaigns or politics, but rather represents one of the ideals of cinema – a personal and distinctive work that, thanks to the perfect use of the full range of vehicles of expression, from acting through narrative structure to formal processes distilled from various models (admittedly here, for example, Wong Kar-Wai and Hou Hsiao-hsien), resonates deep within us and leads us to catharsis involving personal and general humanistic themes. In addition to that, it exposes us to a tremendous onslaught of emotions, even though it conceals them below the surface most of the time. (03/05/2020)

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. (22/02/2017)

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. (08/04/2017)

Social, racial, and sexual themes are targeted too blatantly, in response to all the criticisms aimed at the previous Oscars. The viewer must root for Chiron, whether they want to or not, because his most crucial scene partner is surprisingly the overacting Naomie Harris. However, I also have an issue with the overall form. It is cleverly chosen, although I cannot decide whether its partial imitation of Richard Linklater's Boyhood is an advantage or a disadvantage. It remains painfully empty when clumsily skipping over plot fragments that interest me much more than the main character's relationship with his unteachable mother. I am still struggling with Moonlight because, while I was enchanted by the exceptional performances of Mahershala Ali and André Holland, they were unable to shake off the loud impression of drama for the sake of drama. (06/02/2017)

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. (05/02/2017)