Review of Moonlight (2016) by Alistair H — 12 Mar 2017

Well, this is probably one of the most overhyped films I've come across. The premise is excellent and it could have really pushed a lot of boundaries, but the whole experience was just shallow. For a film based solely off the idea of a character study, the character in question was just flat-out boring. There was no depth to him at all at any of the three stages of his life. Making a character gay and having that as the main premise doesn't make a character interesting, but even the handling of his sexual orientation was rubbish. There was no commentary on it whatsoever, and there wasn't even any chemistry between him and the man he was supposed to be in love with. With a film broaching deep topics such as a growing up black slums amongst crime, with an abusive parental upbringing and being beaten around for being gay, the film just tip toes through these things without offering any real breadth. It never gets its hands dirty.

Oh, and the ending was just plain shocking. You sit through two and a half hours of a character study and the film won't even give a proper conclusion to the character in question? Terrible.

2 stars because the cinematography was interesting, as was the music.