Wife & I watched this last night on PFV. I was VERY apprehensive, as I did not want to be confronted by a film by "Hollywood" and all that that implies. "What's it about?" I ask. "A black kid in Liberty City" she says.( Mrs. cne32507, in a prior life, taught school in Liberty City, so she had a connection). But I am a grown man, comfortable in my skin; not a snowflake who must avoid anything that might offend me. So watch we did.

My review:

I soon saw that this was a serious, very, very well made film. All of the elements worked together to deliver a great movie experience. The cinematography, the scenes, the dialogue, the music and the acting all worked in perfect harmony to convey a great cinema experience. To say this movie was about "A black kid in Liberty City" completely misleads. It is a movie of how a person changes he/she grows up: the small, shy kid called "Little", the bullied teenager "Chiron", the drug dealing thug "Black". The character never had a real family or friend; no one cared about him and he cared for no one. At the end of the film he understands that he must be who HE wants to be and not what his (poor, crime-ridden) environment expects him to be. It is NOT a ghetto shoot'em up nor a queer film nor a negro film.

I also saw La La Land. The two films were both very good, but VERY different.

Here are a couple of reviews:
Explaination
Roger Ebert

So which one would you vote for? La la land or moonlight?

I havnt seen either but I'm curious about the hype.

I have not seen either movie and do not plan to. When Hollywood worships a movie, that's usually my clue to stay far away.

I agree with the academy.

While La La Land is a good movie, it did not plow any new ground. La La is a tribute to the Hollywood musicals of old but without Jeanette McDonald or Nelson Eddy. A great musical has great music; La La didn't. When La La was over, I got up and left happy.

Moonlight is a great movie. Just don't get hung up on the setting: it is much, much more than that. The various arts that make up a movie were all perfectly done. When "Moonlight" finished, I just sat there amazed and confused: I knew I just seen something, but exactly what? The storyline has no satisfying resolution. Hard to categorize.

Oh, the "Moonlight" actor that won best supporting actor, Mahershala Ali, also played "Remy Danton" on "House of Cards." In Moonlight he was a conflicted drug dealing father figure to "Little". He liked the kid but sold crack to his mother. The mother acted well also.

quote:

At once a vital portrait of contemporary African American life and an intensely personal and poetic meditation on identity, family, friendship, and love, MOONLIGHT is a groundbreaking piece of cinema that reverberates with deep compassion and universal truths. Anchored by extraordinary performances …

Yeah, pass. I'm not intersted in lectures from Hollywood.

I haven't seen even one single frame of 12 Years a Slave, either, and I have no intention to- ever.

^^^
That was my fear also. I really didn't want to see it. But I did not feel lectured to. Despite being an all negro movie, there was nothing about "the plight of the poor negro", "social justice" "noble savage" or "white guilt". But the film is much more than the setting. Every scene, every camera angle, every spoken word, every look, every background sound and every piece of music is well thought out and pushes the emotions the film is trying to convey. As a film buff, you could see this much better than I.


I changed the quote to show that the story could be about any color youth anywhere:
At once a vital portrait of contemporary Appalachian American life and an intensely personal and poetic meditation on identity, family, friendship, and love, MOONLIGHT (yada yada)