It would be tempting to call Moonlight an instant landmark in queer black cinema, if that didn't imply that the experience it portrays will speak only to a minority audience. Instead, this is a film that will strike plangent chords for anyone who has ever struggled with identity, or to find connections in a lonely world. It announces Jenkins as an important new voice.
A film so firmly committed to capturing the black experience, resulting in a socially conscious work of art as essential as it is insightful...beautifully nuanced, subtext-rich second feature is no less intellectually engaged, but proves far more trusting in audiences’ ability to read between the lines...Moonlight” would have been ghettoized as a LGBTQ film had it been released a decade earlier...With any luck, this resonant film will connect with audiences in a more universal way.
Like “Brokeback Mountain” a decade ago, “Moonlight” is a piece of art that will transform lives long after it leaves theaters. Those who will be changed by the picture may not see it on the big screen. They may even have to see it in secret. But when they do. Whey they watch Chiron have that first kiss, when he can be himself for just an instance in a world that oppresses him? It will be everything.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/m...-age-heartbre/
Moonlight, the new film from Barry Jenkins, is a nuclear-fission-strength heartbreaker. It’s made up of moments so slight and incidental they’re sub-molecular – but they release enough heat and light to swallow whole cities at a stroke.
http://time.com/4488759/moonlight-ti...film-festival/
A coming-of-age movie, and a love story, that leaves you feeling both stripped bare and restored, slightly better prepared to step out and face the world of people around you, with all the confounding challenges they present. There’s not much more you can ask from a movie.
http://www.timeout.com/us/film/moonlight-2016
Moonlight takes the pain of growing up and turns it into hardened scars and private caresses. This film is, without a doubt, the reason we go to the movies: to understand, to come closer, to ache, hopefully with another.
Just premiered at a film festival and reviews are glowing. Great for once to see that perhaps this year's Big Queer Critical Darling could be about non-white people. I mean, Tangerine happened last year, but it was barely nominated for anything.
Barry Jenkins' Moonlight pulls you into its introspective protagonist's world from the start and transfixes throughout as it observes, with uncommon poignancy and emotional perceptiveness, his roughly two-decade path to find a definitive answer to the question, "Who am I?" While the fundamental nature of that central question gives this exquisite character study universality, the film also brings infinite nuance and laser-like specificity to its portrait of African-American gay male experience, which resonates powerfully in the era of Black Lives Matter.
It would be tempting to call Moonlight an instant landmark in queer black cinema, if that didn't imply that the experience it portrays will speak only to a minority audience. Instead, this is a film that will strike plangent chords for anyone who has ever struggled with identity, or to find connections in a lonely world. It announces Jenkins as an important new voice. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/rev...source=twitter
Indie Wire:
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“Moonlight” is a deep tragedy that’s told in passing glances. Rich with evocative images and tender exchanges, writer-director Barry Jenkins’ treatment of Tarrell Alvin McCraney’s play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue” is a beautiful drama that manages to be both epic and understated. “Moonlight” explores the plight of a young black man across three eras, searching for his place in the world while struggling with his gay identity under the burdens of class and a broken family. The story’s power comes from the gaps between words — and an ongoing battle to find the right ones.
“Moonlight” synthesizes some of the best American cinema of recent years. Jenkins pairs the melancholic power of the repressed sexuality in “Brokeback Mountain” and “Carol” with the subtle textures of burgeoning masculinity in “Boyhood.”
What does it mean to be Black in America today? That question, too big for any one film to answer, serves as the driving inquiry in Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight,” a beautifully intimate character study that argues in no uncertain terms that the African-American identity is far too complex to be reduced to the flimsy stereotypes so often presented on-screen.
“Black” isn’t just a race, community, or color, but one of three names by which a sexually conflicted young South Florida man allows himself to be called in a film that’s ultimately about taking control of one’s own identity. That’s exactly what Jenkins himself is doing by delivering a film so firmly committed to capturing the black experience, resulting in a socially conscious work of art as essential as it is insightful.
Told in three chapters over the course of about 16 years, “Moonlight” (adapted from playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney short, poetically titled theater piece, “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue”) is one of the first post-“Boyhood” indies to take a serious look at a young man’s evolution over time — though Jenkins employs the traditional strategy of casting different actors to portray Chiron (whose name is pronounced like that of the former Israeli prime minister) and his peers at the different stages of their lives. The film begins with Chiron at age 10, picking up later in high school, and then skipping forward to reveal the man he has become, thick-skinned and tough on the outside but still searching on the interior. “Moonlight” would have been ghettoized as a LGBTQ film had it been released a decade earlier, considering that dimension of his self-discovery. Today, no real category applies, and with any luck, this resonant film will connect with audiences in a more universal way. http://variety.com/2016/film/festiva...ew-1201850255/
Playlist:
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It goes without saying that there have simply not been enough films about the gay experience of African-Americans or other people of color for that matter. Is is not hyperbole to note Barry Jenkins’ magnificent new drama “Moonlight,” which premiered at the 2016 Telluride Film Festival, is a historic achievement in this regard.
Like “Brokeback Mountain” a decade ago, “Moonlight” is a piece of art that will transform lives long after it leaves theaters. Those who will be changed by the picture may not see it on the big screen. They may even have to see it in secret. But when they do. Whey they watch Chiron have that first kiss, when he can be himself for just an instance in a world that oppresses him? It will be everything. http://theplaylist.net/magnificent-m...view-20160903/
There was already talk about it scoring big nominations at the Oscars (Best Pic, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress), so I'm glad to see it landing great reviews!
100 after 6 reviews - though one of those is a 95, so 5 100s.
100s this year: Hell or High Water 11/44
Everybody Wants Some 8/50
Krisha 7/28, Love and Friendship 7/36, Kubo 7/37
Toni Erdmann 6/10 (German film), The Fits 6/21, Little Men 6/36, Witch 6/46
Manchester by the Sea 5/10, Paterson 5/11, La La Land 5/12, Cemetery of Splendor 5/17, De Palma 5/31
I don't think the old heterosexual white male population will get this, so here's hoping they miss the deadline of voting somehow and the movie overperforms. Can't wait to see it