rating: 6.75/10
disclaimer: i'm trying to write down all my reviews after a long time. my memory of things might be shoddy but i'll try my best to capture what i initially felt about the pieces of media that i consumed in my review.
i have... complicated feelings about this movie. do i think it was good? yes. i think it was. but i think the problem i ran into was that this movie's premise reminded me of that one particular thing jeffrey wright's character had a problem with in black stories in American Fiction. does that mean this particular facet of the black experience isn't valid? no it is. it's just that this is new for me to see as someone who has grown up consuming mainstream media, and pre-dominantly stories written by and for white people. i'm sure this movie must've been influential in 2016, but watching this in 2025 in an age where representation has improved by leaps and bounds, the effect was lost on me and i judged this movie very objectively.
i liked how we saw chiron in different phases of his life. i appreciated that one detail that the director sought—that even though the actors for chiron would change, his eyes should remain the same. WAS I EXPECTING HIM TO GET WITH KEVIN FR? NO. in my mind i was like "yo it'd be sick if chiron and kevin kiss" AND THEY DID. ON THE BEACH. UNDER MOONLIGHT. the visual poetry of this movie is amazing. and if i'd watched it at night in one sitting i'm sure i would've appreciated it more. i also like the use of color in this movie. don't remember much about the score tho. and JANELLE MONAE WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!? i genuinely wasn't expecting to see her. she ate her role as teresa.
