Moonlight

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Moonlight

Post by LotsoA113 » February 27th, 2017, 5:47 pm

Just thought I'd create a thread for this year's Best Picture winner, an award that came out after an already historic snafu!

But yeah, Moonlight is amazing, my personal favorite movie of last year by a long shot! The tale of Chiron (told over three different parts of his life) is spectacular in all regards, the cinematography is gorgeous, the writing is sharp and thoughtful, the performances are all phenomenal, especially Mahershala Ali in a brief but amazing performance as a guiding light of kindness in the early years of the protagonist's life. Plus, this and Hidden Figures proved to me that Janelle Monae is a total star in the making, she's got acting chops and charisma to spare. It also must be said that the way Moonlight handles the concept of masculinity and wanting to form a human connection in a world that doesn't accept you beautifully, watching Chiron grapple with his sexuality and who he is throughout the course of his life makes for the most riveting kind of cinema.

Moonlights hit Blu-Ray tomorrow in the U.S. and will likely be returning to theaters this Friday now that it's got a Best Picture Oscar to its name. I implore those who haven't seen this miracle of a human to see it post-haste. It's the kind of extraordinary motion picture that reminds you of why movies are great in the first place!
I love all things cinema, from silent movies to world cinema to animated cinema to big blockbusters to documentaries and everything in between!

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Re: Moonlight

Post by Dacey » February 27th, 2017, 5:55 pm

I haven't seen Moonlight, but it was considered the frontrunner long before La La Land (which I also haven't seen yet) gained so much momentum.

Either way, this was another year of the Academy giving the award to a film most people didn't get a chance to see in theaters.
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift--that is why it's called the present."

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Re: Moonlight

Post by LotsoA113 » February 27th, 2017, 5:59 pm

Dacey wrote:I haven't seen Moonlight, but it was considered the frontrunner long before La La Land (which I also haven't seen yet) gained so much momentum.
It's so insane to me it became the frontrunner early on, let alone actually won, since it's very much not in the Academy's wheelhouse (since it stars members of the LGBTQA community, non-white people, smaller-scale fare with no big-name actors, it's not showy, etc.). A lovely surprise right there!
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Re: Moonlight

Post by James » February 27th, 2017, 9:59 pm

LotsoA113 wrote:
Dacey wrote:I haven't seen Moonlight, but it was considered the frontrunner long before La La Land (which I also haven't seen yet) gained so much momentum.
It's so insane to me it became the frontrunner early on, let alone actually won, since it's very much not in the Academy's wheelhouse (since it stars members of the LGBTQA community, non-white people, smaller-scale fare with no big-name actors, it's not showy, etc.). A lovely surprise right there!
Not in the Academy's wheelhouse? The bastion of liberal America? Gotta disagree, Moonlight was a Hollywood dream film.

As for "smaller-scale fare" surprise, going to disagree there too. Almost every winner since 2004 has been a smaller more independent film.

Nothing against the film, but far from outside the La La Land norm. (see what I did there! ;))

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Re: Moonlight

Post by EricJ » February 27th, 2017, 10:58 pm

LotsoA113 wrote:It's so insane to me it became the frontrunner early on, let alone actually won, since it's very much not in the Academy's wheelhouse (since it stars members of the LGBTQA community,
<drink-spray!!> Gay movies "not in the Oscar wheelhouse"? We've gotten at least one every YEAR, by the clock.
(Who do you think all the Zootopia voters were for, in Best Animated?)

Up until now, they've never won, of course (Brokeback, Imitation Game), but maybe if they're lucky, Christopher Plummer or Peter O'Toole goes away with a Supporting Actor for some indie British aging-queen story performance.
That's what made the mixup so confusing--If they'd said Moonlight and THEN L3, we'd all be thinking "Huh?...Yeah, that makes more sense!"

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Re: Moonlight

Post by Ben » February 28th, 2017, 3:21 pm

Yeah, gotta say that out of all the Picture nominees, Moonlight was the only film in the list that felt like an "Oscar movie". It was right in their wheelhouse all along...no real surprise that it - ultimately - won the big prize.

Yes, James, I saw what you did there. You used La La Land in a different way to how the filmmakers did. Nice.

(At least someone noticed it, unlike my singing pig joke for this year's best live short winner in the forum chat the other night!) ;)

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Re: Moonlight

Post by LotsoA113 » February 28th, 2017, 8:25 pm

EricJ wrote:
LotsoA113 wrote:It's so insane to me it became the frontrunner early on, let alone actually won, since it's very much not in the Academy's wheelhouse (since it stars members of the LGBTQA community,
<drink-spray!!> Gay movies "not in the Oscar wheelhouse"? We've gotten at least one every YEAR, by the clock.
(Who do you think all the Zootopia voters were for, in Best Animated?)

Up until now, they've never won, of course (Brokeback, Imitation Game), but maybe if they're lucky, Christopher Plummer or Peter O'Toole goes away with a Supporting Actor for some indie British aging-queen story performance.
That's what made the mixup so confusing--If they'd said Moonlight and THEN L3, we'd all be thinking "Huh?...Yeah, that makes more sense!"
Most LGBTQA centered movies that have gotten Oscar recognition either relegate the LGBTQA characters to sidekick roles or make it a tragic story about them dying. Very rarely is a film about the LGBTQA community just living their lives and being who they are nominated for the big award (remember Carol getting a Best Picture snub?). That's what made Moonlight's victory so nice to me at least. Here's a great AV Club article that goes into detail on how LGBQA movies typically don't get recognized by the Academy:

http://www.avclub.com/article/mostly-sn ... uee-230826


And James, as a hardcore liberal myself, I'm not so sure I could call the Oscars a bastion of Liberal America when they're nominating Mel Gibson and Casey Affleck for major awards....
I love all things cinema, from silent movies to world cinema to animated cinema to big blockbusters to documentaries and everything in between!

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