Moonlight (2016) A24/Plan B Entertainment/Pastel Productions 📢 Director: Barry Jenkins. 💰 Producers: Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner. 👫 Cast: Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris, Mahershala Ali. 🏆 Awards ceremony: -89th Academy Awards: February 26, 2017. Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. 🎭 Other films nominated for Best Picture this year: -Arrival. -Fences. -Hacksaw Ridge. -Hell Or High Water. -Hidden Figures. -La La Land. -Lion. -Manchester By The Sea. 📕 Plot summary: The story of a shy young boy named Chiron, who suffers years of abuse at the hands of his drug-addicted single mother, as well as from the school bullies who torment him for being gay. As he grows up, he begins to explore his sexuality, drugs and violence. Towards the end of the film Chiron is given opportunities to forgive those who tormented him as a child. 💥 Standout scene(s): -Juan teaching Chiron to swim in the sea. -Juan confronting Chiron's mother when he sees her smoking drugs in a car in his neighborhood. -The strongest scene is with Chiron and Kev exploring their homosexuality on the beach. 🔑 Facts: -The 89th Academy Awards. -Nominated for 8 Academy Awards, it won 3: Best Picture, Supporting actor (MAHERSHALA ALI, who became the first Muslim actor to win an Oscar), Adapted screenplay. -Dede Gardner (the producer of MOONLIGHT) became the first woman to win twice for producing (12 YEARS A SLAVE). -The budget for the film was only $4 million (approximately). 🙂 Personal opinion: First impressions: Wow! What a powerful, solid drama, which massively exceeded my expectations. Some incredibly powerful scenes, shot with sensitivity and allowing for brilliant performances from an all-black cast. Once you have seen the film, you will understand the image on the front of the movie poster. The film begins with a song's lyrics, 'Every nigger is a star' and you just kinda know where it's going! A strong start to the film with a very good story and exceptional performances from not only the adults (MAHERSHALA ALI and NAOMIE HARRIS) but also the kids too. The abrupt disappearance of Juan's character (just before the 40-minutes mark) was frustrating because up until that point he was just brilliant to watch and easily the best character in the film. Another observation is how the actor playing adult Chiron (TREVANTE RHODES) was in tune with the actor playing the character as a child (ALEX HIBBERT), displaying the same shy mannerisms. In light of the controversy during the Academy Awards ceremony where LA LA LAND was initially revealed as the Best Picture winner before it was corrected to MOONLIGHT, I wanted to check out LA LA LAND prior to reviewing MOONLIGHT to see which of the two films I thought deserved the win. It was a tough call. The Oscars won by LA LA LAND were well deserved and were significantly superior to anything MOONLIGHT had to offer. That said, MOONLIGHT was superior in the three categories which bagged its awards too - which I have to admit does include the all-important one: Best Picture. Did it deserve the Oscar? ✅YES. Is it more worthy than LA LA LAND? I'd say it was a draw. I gave both films the same 7.5/10 rating upon my first viewing of each, and for the reasons I have already stated above. 7½/10

Review date: 27 July 2025