It's the morning after the upset of Moonlight winning the Best Picture Oscar, after a flub by some idiot stage managers, duplicate envelopes, and Faye Dunaway just willing to read whatever film title was on the card in front of her. No, I don't believe it was a conspiracy plot or Russian hack. Save that for Trump's win last November.
Barry Jenkins' Moonlight was one of my favorite movies from last year (along with 20th Century Women, Arrival, among a few others) and well-deserving of its win, not as some kind of token Oscar nod but as a fierce and deep, but also hypnotically calming film full of strong messages.
LaLa Land was a fluffy, candy-colored, puddle deep film that was technically lush and well-made, but more or less an escapist rom-com. You can read my original thoughts on it here.
Moonlight's deserved Oscar win for Best Picture was the first for a film centered around a gay character and most certainly the first, or one of the firsts, to feature a cast entirely of people of color. It's also one of the smallest-budgeted films to win the prize. All of these firsts are important, and important to document for reflection. They would seem like just statistics if the film itself wasn't filled with outstanding performances, beautiful cinematography, and a haunting score.
The quiet, meditative tone and slow pace of the movie is in such contrast to much if not most of the films up for Oscars this or any year. It had the glacial movement of a European art film but a steadfastly American modern location and situation.
Having a young, gay man of color be the center of a small independent film pushed into the mainstream, catching on, then exploding all the way up to the pinnacle Oscar win is something to be remembered. Will next year's Best Picture winner be back to business as usual? Does this change anything for Hollywood in terms of reflection or visibility?
When seeing Moonlight for the first time, I was reminded of a film that felt like a precursor to it, almost. A small, critically praised but little-seen movie called Pariah (2011) by Dee Rees, about a black lesbian teenager in NYC and making her way through the resistance to her truly being herself. I hope people who loved and praised Moonlight discover this film.
No comments:
Post a Comment