Pale Moonlight

So it really bothered me that I hadn't seen "Moonlight," the made in Miami movie that just won best picture Oscar.  I read awesome reviews in the NY Times and elsewhere, and grew to like and cheer for the ghetto born and raised director and writer.  I typically don't like movies much these days -- for every three Wifey drags me to, I might enjoy one, but I figured this one was a sure thing.

Wifey emailed that it was available on our Pay Per View, so I came home and asked her to put it on.  She had, of course, already seen it, with her fellow movie loving friend Jodi.  Wifey had reported it was "ok."  So the strange rescue dog and crippled Spaniel took our places on the couch, and sat back and watched.

Eh.  The colors were nice, and the acting natural, but the story was about a young gay boy with a crackhead Mom and no Dad.  The boy becomes a sort of ward to a local drug dealer, and grows up to be badly bullied, and even betrayed by his first gay, though ghetto closeted, lover, after they share a blunt and hand job on the beach.  The kid gets angry at the bully, busts a chair over his head, and goes to prison.  Even though it's clearly a state crime, he gets sent off to prison in Atlanta, where he gets out and becomes, surprise, a drug dealer, just like his non homophobic father figure.

Years later, the crackhead Mom is living in a drug rehab/homeless shelter, and he calls the first lover, who has also gone to jail for drugs (it's clearly implied that that's the fate of most Miami black boys), but is now released and a cook/manager at a local diner.  The cook calls the now Atlanta drug dealer, and the hero drives to Miami, sees crackhead Mom, and the two have a meal at the diner and then go to the cook's apartment for sex, or maybe just touching.  Oh, and there's a nice, mystical sea breeze.

That's it.  I frowned, and told Wifey the Oscar win was Hollywood affirmative action.  It was, at best, a mediocre movie.  Then again, I have a feeling I would have disliked the other main contender for best picture, La La Land, even more.

I guess I want to see a story about success.  Had the boy come out of that terrible childhood, and become, oh, a playwright, I would have liked it better.  But this cycle of looserhood?  Somehow ok because the loser is gay?  Nah -- not my kind of movie.

I ought to stick to books, good magazines, and the occasional quality TV series.  We've started watching "Billions," and I really like that -- Paul Giammatti is awesome, and the storylines and characters are terrific.

Of this year's Best Picture movie nominations, I only saw "Hell or High Water," and liked it.  Then again, it had Jeff Bridges, so it HAD to be ok.

But as for "Moonlight," well, good for the local fellows who made it.  For me, it was a bit Emperor New Clothes-ey...