The two front runners for Academy Awards are "Moonlight" and "Manchester by the Sea". Both have been nominated for multiple Golden Globes. I saw them both.
I couldn't quite figure out what the fuss is about with "Moonlight". It's the story of a gay, black boy (and man) whose mother is a crack addict. The boy (Chiron) is portrayed by three different actors -- as a child, a teenager and an adult. His home life is horrid; his school life is even worse (he is bullied). He winds up in prison for bashing the worst bully over the head with a chair, and turns to drug dealing as the standard mode of earning a living.
The mood is dark -- much of the movie is shot at night. In the first segment, a drug dealer tries to help Chiron. The dealer is the most interesting character in the movie, but he disappears from acts 2 and 3.
The film is directed by Barry Jenkins, and critics rave about it. Here's Richard Brody of The New Yorker:
OK. I get it. But not every individual's consciousness is worthy of exploration by great art. The problem with damaged, emotionally stunted, taciturn characters (like Chiron) is that, since they barely talk, there isn't much dialogue by which their "multifaceted identity" can be explored. Indeed, conventions and archetypes can serve to draw the viewer in, to make him interested in and empathetic to the protagonist's plight. I liked the "boyhood" section (it's impossible not to sympathize with a bullied child), but was less interested in the adult section, in which a damaged Chiron moves gloomily on with his gloomy life.Quote:
Blasting aside conventions, archetypes, and stereotypes, Jenkins conjures the birth of an individual’s consciousness, the forging of a complex and multifaceted identity; he restores complexity to the very idea of identity, of the multiplicity as well as the singularity of being oneself—and he conveys his own primordial sense of wonder that art itself can conjure it.
The problem with my criticism of "Moonlight" is it could be equally applied to "Manchester". Lee (the protagonist) is as damaged and taciturn as Chiron. But, somehow, the movie worked for me.
My brother lives in Manchester by the Sea (a toney exurb north of Boston), so I enjoyed the familiar landmarks. Casey Affleck slouches through the town, desperately unhappy, silent, and broken. But his sense of duty and honor are demonstrated by his relationship with his nephew, whose father has just died, and whose guardian he now is. In addition, flashbacks expose both his charm (before he was broken) and the tragedy that caused his quiet desperation. Although it is true that the drama of Lee's tragedy is (as Brody might say) conventional and archetypical, therein lies the viewers' sympathy, and the artistry of the movie. The scene in which he talks to his ex-wife (Michelle Williams) on the street haunts the viewer and reveals both Lee's irreversibly damaged psyche, and his essential goodness.
