{"id":415,"date":"2017-05-09T16:00:10","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T22:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=415"},"modified":"2017-09-10T16:42:12","modified_gmt":"2017-09-10T22:42:12","slug":"movie-moonlight-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2017\/05\/09\/movie-moonlight-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"MOVIE: Moonlight (2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Moonlight\"Moonlight<\/strong><\/span>
\nYear: 2016
\nRating: R
\nLength: 111 minutes \/ 1.85 hours<\/p>\n

Based on the surprise win of Best Picture at this year\u2019s Oscars, I had high expectations for Moonlight<\/em> (2016). There were some fantastic, motivational, and inspirational films in the running for this award, including the \u201cfollow your dreams\u201d story of La La Land<\/a><\/em> (2016), the \u201ccommunication is key\u201d story of Arrival<\/a><\/em> (2016), and the \u201covercoming adversity\u201d story of Hidden Figures<\/a><\/em> (2016). So, what did Moonlight<\/em> have to offer? In my opinion, not much; but maybe that was because I\u2019m a straight white (you could argue, privileged) male and there was little to relate to in this film.<\/p>\n

Sure, the cinematography was impressive at times, but there wasn\u2019t any story that I felt was impactful enough to warrant its award. I will give credit to Mahershala Ali, as his performance was certainly deserving of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. So, what lessons does Moonlight<\/em> give us? Do we need to find good mentors in life? A nurturing home life can prevent many problems? Life is hard, get over it? It seems to me that these lessons are self-explanatory. If anything, this movie should give an emphasis to parents. If you\u2019re a mother, don\u2019t do drugs. If you\u2019re a father, be there for your family.<\/p>\n

As is usually the case with most Best Picture winners, I can\u2019t help but think that this movie won because something else should have won before. If you want a better \u201ccoming of age\u201d film, Boyhood<\/em> (2014) had a much more impressive production. If you want a better \u201ccoming out\u201d film, Brokeback Mountain<\/em> (2005) could fill that spot. If you want a better \u201cblack\u201d film, Do the Right Thing<\/em> (1989) is a fantastic example. Maybe it\u2019s the combination of its parts; I don\u2019t know. What worries me the most is the thought that this film won because of the social pressures put upon the Oscars from last year\u2019s #OscarsSoWhite controversy. Should a sub-par film win just so the Academy can prove that they have \u201cdiversity\u201d? But again, I\u2019m just a privileged, straight, white guy, so maybe I just don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n

An OK movie with nothing significantly new to offer, I give Moonlight<\/em> 3.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong>\u00a0\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong>\u00a0\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moonlight Year: 2016 Rating: R Length: 111 minutes \/ 1.85 hours Based on the surprise win of Best Picture at this year\u2019s Oscars, I had high expectations for Moonlight (2016). There were some fantastic, motivational, and inspirational films in the running for this award, including the \u201cfollow your dreams\u201d story of La La Land (2016), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,2,369,498],"tags":[9,507,501,503,505,502,504,500,508,499,13,506,8],"class_list":["post-415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3-0-stars","category-movie","category-oscar","category-winner","tag-9","tag-best-picture","tag-black","tag-boyhood","tag-brokeback-mountain","tag-coming-of-age","tag-do-the-right-thing","tag-homosexual","tag-moon","tag-moonlight","tag-movie","tag-oscar-winner","tag-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":808,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415\/revisions\/808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}