Moonlight [2016]

‘Moonlight’, directed by Barry Jenkins, follows the story of Chiron through his childhood, adolescence and adulthood. He is a gay african-american living in the rough neighborhood of Miami.

Honestly. I loved this movie in all its aspects: I loved the acting, the visuals, the sound design and the story. I loved literally everything and I think this film deserved the so many awards it received.

I am going to start this review with the story:  I loved the story because it tackles a delicate subject, it breaks the stereotypes of how black people are, it is very well developed, the characters are so well constructed, developed and feel very human. Moreover, the writer did not rely only on visuals and dialogues to make us understand what’s happening, he sometimes decided to tell the story through sound or using metaphors. Basically, during the whole film, we were not spoon fed, nothing was told to us directly.

Moving on, I think the sound design is so interesting: the music is not what you actually except, the director chose to put classical music which really dramatizes the situation and sometimes the music fits with the scene but other times, it goes in contrast with the scene [for example when the kids are playing football and there’s classical music playing in the background]. On top of that, I loved this shift from deep silent scenes with intense instrumental music to scenes with only diegetic sound.

The visuals are also something I really admired: there was nothing extraordinary in the art direction or in the cinematography but honestly, I loved the color palette and the composition of the frame [each shots were studied to reflect the character’s personality, to reflect their intentions or to reflect the scene’s objective]. Also, I loved the camera movement of some scenes, how the camera smoothly follows the characters and is hand-held; it enhances the drama and make us [the audience] feel like we are part of the problem.

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The best thing in this film, after the story, is definitely the acting: the actors are able to transmit their feelings, desires, inner thoughts by a simple facial expression, a gaze, a gesture or even an action. They did not rely on dialogues to tell the audience what they are thinking about.

To conclude, if you haven’t watched ‘Moonlight’, I really advice you to watch it, ASAP, because it is mesmerizing.

That’s it for this film review. If you found it to be useful and interesting, please go ahead and give it a ‘like’ and don’t forget to follow my blog [I post 4 times a week].

xx

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19 Comments

  1. August 20, 2017 / 9:54 am

    I wasn’t so much of a fan of this. It’s been a while since I watched it so I can’t remember why exactly, but I seem to remember leaving the cinema with a sort of ‘oh, that’s it?’ kind of feeling! Mahershala Ali was absolutely fantastic though, for the small part he played.

    • August 20, 2017 / 1:16 pm

      Yes mahershala was amazing!! I personally loved this film but ofc not everyone has to love it and i totally respect that!!!

  2. Coyote from Orion
    August 20, 2017 / 11:46 am

    Very interesting. Why am I sort of thinking 6 degrees of separation???

      • Coyote from Orion
        August 20, 2017 / 5:32 pm

        The film. Sounds very similar to Will Smith’s character…. the other in that he belonged to several ‘minority groups’.

        • August 20, 2017 / 10:48 pm

          Ooohhh i see!! I dont know really cause i havent watched that film.

          • Coyote from Orion
            August 20, 2017 / 11:05 pm

            See it. A must. You might be a bit young. A young Will Smith. Great film.

          • Coyote from Orion
            August 20, 2017 / 11:55 pm

            You guy do some great underground or arthouse. Same with your music. American non mainstream music industry goes off

          • Coyote from Orion
            August 21, 2017 / 10:26 am

            About 8 hours. Exhausted. Dark moon I guess. Hope this 2nd Leo moon goes well for you and loved ones. Not sure what is happening ourside my door musically this week. Summer coming so we tend to get touring bands from you guys, then

  3. August 20, 2017 / 4:52 pm

    I just nominated you for the sunshine blogger award xx

    • August 20, 2017 / 5:23 pm

      Awww thank you dear but i am not sure i will do it soon because i’ve already been nominated for the same award except that the rules are different

  4. August 23, 2017 / 5:20 pm

    I’m going to buy this movie soon. I heard nothing but good things about this film. Can’t wait to own it and watch it myself. 🙂 Thank you so much for this wonderful review my friend. 🙂

  5. September 6, 2017 / 12:10 pm

    A very powerful, yet startlingly sensitive, film