moonlight – The Concordian

Not winning a Best Picture at The Oscars is inconsequential in the long run

Last week’s Oscar ceremony proved to one of the most eventful in the Academy’s history. The night was a collection of great TV moments, including Auli’i Cravalho from Disney’s Moana being hit over the head by a backup dancer’s prop during her performance, and Denzel Washington marrying two tourists.

It was one of the rare award ceremonies that managed to keep my attention throughout its three-hour runtime. However, the broadcast ended abruptly after one of the greatest mistakes ever made at the Oscars: the wrong movie was called as the winner of Best Picture—the most prestigious honour in the cinematic industry.

The Best Picture winner is always one which creates friction and frustration amongst movie enthusiasts and the public. Often, more culturally-relevant films are snubbed, with the award going to a forgettable and generic film which will be forgotten in a couple of years, such as last year when Spotlight won instead of Mad Max: Fury Road. Several of the most popular and revered directors in cinematic history, such as Quentin Tarantino, Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick have never won a Best Picture award.

The Best Picture winner is selected by a voting system including all the members of the Academy, composed of over 6,000 individuals. The membership status is obtained by invitation or by winning an Academy Award. Therefore, any previous actor or director who won an Oscar during their career is eligible to vote for the Best Picture winner. Hence, the system can quickly become biased as the members can cast their votes for their friends and colleagues. Moreover, cinema is a subjective topic, making the result open for discussion and debate.

In order to win the Best Picture award, a film must be able to reach a larger audience, and must appeal to the majority of the Academy’s members. This explains how movies which tend to push the boundaries of cinema, or are targeted at a niche audience are not likely to win an award at the ceremony. Nicolas Winding Refn’s latest thriller, Neon Demon, whose cinematography mirrors La La Land’s in terms of precision and astonishing shots, did not get nominated for any category. A reason for this might be because it dealt with sensitive and shocking topics, such as cannibalism, pedophilia and necrophilia, therefore narrowing its mass appeal. There is also a tendency to avoid mainstream releases like superhero movies—they are often overlooked by the Academy’s members due to their escapist and sometimes childish nature.

Even though the mix-up which occurred during the announcement of this year’s Best Picture category was an entertaining moment, the outcome does not truly matter in the long term. Both Moonlight and La La Land were incredible films that equally deserved the award. But what makes a film stand the test of time is not necessarily the number of awards it brings in, but the impact it has on the collective consciousness of the audience.

Directed by Barry Jenkins, the film has racked up eight Oscars nominations

Moonlight, a coming-of-age story of a young African-American growing up in inner-city Miami while coming to terms with his own sexuality, may not exactly seem universal at first. But its themes of identity, friendship, guilt and acceptance certainly are.

Written and directed by Barry Jenkins, the film stars Trevante Rhodes, Ashton Sanders, Mahershala Ali, Alex R. Hibbert, André Holland, Naomie Harris and Janelle Monáe. Based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tarell Alvin McCraney, the film has received universal acclaim and has been nominated for eight Oscars.

“At some point, you gotta decide for yourself who you gonna be. Can’t let nobody make that decision for you.” This is the proverbial maxim in Jenkins’ modern masterpiece, Moonlight. The film chronicles its protagonist in three chapters of his life: the young “Little” (Hibbert), the adolescent “Chiron” (Sanders), and the adult “Black” (Rhodes).

Those simple words of wisdom are spoken early on in the film by Juan (Ali, in a career-defining role), a kindly, if not modest, local drug dealer who befriends the often bullied and neglected Little. In fact, his enlightening words arguably set into motion the often painful process of self-discovery that our young protagonist undergoes throughout the film.

Any lingering questions regarding the unlikely friendship between an older, genteel drug dealer and a quiet, reserved young boy are quickly made irrelevant in large part because of the instant, tender chemistry between both characters. Juan and his girlfriend Teresa (Monáe) quickly establish themselves as surrogate guardians, filling the emotional void left by Little’s erratic mother Paula (Harris)—a young single parent in the throes of drug addiction. When Juan angrily confronts Paula, asking, “You gonna raise your son?,” she defiantly shoots back, “You gonna keep selling me rocks?” There is a definite power struggle between these two parental figures.

The middle chapter focuses on the emerging bond between adolescents Chiron and Kevin (Jharrel Jerome). While Kevin is reserved, mostly silent and continuously bullied, his friend is much louder, more boastful and much more confident. Their pivotal scene on the beach, under the moonlight, is perhaps Jenkins’ finest-directed one in the entire film—the dialogue is eloquent, the setting is serene and its conclusion is satisfyingly romantic.

By the time we revisit our protagonist as an adult 10 years later, Black (now played by Rhodes) looks to be in stark contrast to his past self. He is physically imposing and intimidating, and stylistically, he is an homage to Juan. However, the facade quickly reveals itself the moment he receives a surprise call from Kevin. The vulnerability is evident in Blacks shifting gaze, as if he is instantly reverted back to his younger, unsure self. In the emotionally-devastating climactic end of the film, Kevin bluntly asks him, “Who is you, man?” and we are reminded of Juan’s words of wisdom. “At some point, you gotta decide for yourself who you gonna be…”