Moonlight (2016)

Directed by Barry Jenkins 

Written by Barry Jenkins (screenplay) and Tarell Alvin McCraney (story)

Starring Mahershala Ali,  Naomie Harris and Janelle Monae

     A timeless story of self discovery-which follows the same character from childhood to adulthood. Moonlight is a cruel but honest story that in large, is a story of a gay black man. Broken down into thee parts though- this is a story of how this character overcomes many things, along with his sexuality. Chiron battles poverty, overcoming social boundaries, his drug addict mother, and love. Barry Jenkins brings us an episodic tale which allows us to see the character's struggles as he grows up, and how he learns from them. 

     The first part of Moonlight is named "Little," which introduces us to elementary school Chiron (Alex Hibbert) and we really start to gain a perspective on his personality that sticks with him through all three parts. Young Chiron is shy and tormented by the other boys at school. He really only seeks comfort with one other kid, Kevin (Jaden Piner). With a parental gap at home, the young boy starts to become attached to drug dealer Juan (Mahershala Ali) and his girlfriend, Teresa (Janelle Monae). 

     The bullying Chiron faced as a child progresses in the second part while he's now a teenager (now played by Ashton Sanders) in high school. Kevin (now played by Jharrel Jerome) still remains his only friend, his mother began a relationship with crack, and Juan is dead. A lot changes for the naive boy in this middle part. Chiron's questioning of his sexuality only heightens after a passionate experience on the beach with his friend Kevin- which eventually leads to a violent bullying experience at school. By the time we enter the third part of the film, we see Chiron's totally re-branded himself. He takes on this "hood" persona, wearing grills and becoming a bulky drug dealer in Atlanta now known as, "Black" (now played by Trevante Rhodes). On a lighter note, we get to see a reunion between Kevin (Andre Holland) and Chiron in the end. 

     The ensemble cast is the reason for the film's greatness- especially the three actors who portrayed Chiron. I was sad to see Mahershala Ali's supporting role was so short-lived. My favorite performance definitely came from Naomie Harris though. She had some riveting, serious scenes showing the negative impacts of crack on family members- specifically on her son. The cast had lots of newcomers that all attributed to the storytelling in their own way. 

     The film covers many serious topics including poverty, bullying and coming to terms with ones sexuality. Chiron's specific upbringing and habitat may be unfamiliar to some, but the adversities he is forced to overcome are universal. I really liked that the film was broken up into three episodes. Even though I wasn't crazy about the ending of the film, I still left feeling satisfied that I was told a heroic story of self discovery. 

I give Moonlight a...

7/10

Hidden Figures (2016)

Directed by Theodore Melfi

Written by Theodore Melfi and Allison Schoeder (screenplay)

Margot Lee Shetterly (novel)

Starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae and Kevin Costner

    From St. Vincent director, Theodore Melfi comes an inspiring tale of the untold true stories of three African-American female mathematicians who all played a key role in calculating the momentous launch of astronaut John Glenn into space. A heroic tale of three woman overcoming race and gender in the workplace during the 1960's Civil Right Movement. A tale that I honestly knew nothing about before seeing this movie. 

     Set in the mid 20th century, Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) are three "human computers" working at NASA but are widely under appreciated as they are stuck working in an employee-temp circle with many other black women. As the race to get a man in space starts to heat up with America wanting to beat Russia, Katherine, Dorothy and Mary start to work their way up, especially Katherine, being that she's the only human computer who knows analytical geometry, finds herself working directly on the John Glenn launch into space with some of NASA's top scientists including leader of the operation Al Harrison (Kevin Costner). 

     Despite the misogyny and racial segregation of the time, these three women prevail from "colored" bathrooms and coffee pots (yes, I said coffee pots) to being some of the key minds that were responsible for John Glenn's successful manned mission into space, and his anticipated return home. Melfi beautifully tells not just a story of three extremely intelligent women working for NASA, he reminds us all of the discrimination that men and women of color went through at this time (and he does so very mildly as this film is rated PG). We are reminded that there were segregated drinking fountains, sections of the library and even schools despite the 1954 Supreme Court case, Brown vs. Board of Education which declared segregated schools to be unconstitutional. Virginia being an exception to this court ruling still had all white schools, which we see in the movie as Mary attempts to take night classes to become an engineer. 

     While this film does have a powerful message of these basically hidden NASA African-American women breaking racial and gender boundaries, it also has some refreshing humor with three working women's friendship. We get so see some quite comical car ride scenes and scenes from their personal lives which make them a little more relatable. 

     Hidden Figures brought some very enjoyable acting performances that I felt were right on this invisible cusp almost Oscar nomination worthy but not quite there. Henson's main character was a lot different from her Empire character, Cookie. She plays such a soft spoken, sensitive character prone to pushing up her glasses on her face who did have one scene where she stands up for herself in a very inspirational Cookie-esque manner. Octavia Spencer brought her usual sense of bold humor mixed with some powerful authoritative scenes. Who knew Janelle Monae could act? Being one of her first acting performances I thought she did pretty great. Oscar worthy? No... but great none the less. We also see some supporting performances in this film that are worth mentioning like Kirsten Dunst who plays the condescending white supervisor who is holding Dorothy Vaughn back. Jim Parsons also has a supporting role as Katherine's arch-nemisis Jim Stafford, who is always giving her ridiculous tasks and feeling envious of her progress. You can't like every character in the movie. 

     After seeing this movie and becoming much more informed on the impact these three women had on Glenn's launch into space, I can say I am very joyous that author Margot Lee Shetterly celebrated their story in her book. Melfi and Schroeder inventively craft their story into a brilliant film about friendship, conquering injustice, and being very very good at math. 

I give Hidden Figures a...

7/10