Double Review: Moonlight and Rogue One
It’s December, so you know what that means. Star Wars and Oscar season! Let’s get right into it.
Moonlight
Considering how many critics have already gushed about how good this movie is, I’m kinda struggling to find something unique to say about it. Moonlight is a really good movie. It’s a thoughtful introspection into a story that’s going to resonate on some level with almost everyone, but it’s also just a really solid piece of filmmaking.
To put it simply, Moonlight is the most “real” movie I’ve seen all year. The characters the movie presents feel absolutely authentic and real, and the story you’re seeing not only feels like something that could happen, but that DOES happen every single day. I won’t spoil the details, for I feel that experiencing this movie blind is the best way to go about it, but I walked away simultaneously satisfied and surprised with this movie. There’s a layer of authenticity to this movie I feel is sorely lacking in movies today. None of it feels glossed up in any way, nothing’s stretched beyond the point of disbelief, it’s just a simple, powerful story told incredibly well. That’s all elevated thanks to how good the performances are and how expertly the movie has been directed. The entire cast delivers incredible performances; and I include the child and teen performances when I say that. This is, in my opinion, the best ensemble of the year. The direction manages to walk a line of stylized realism that’s very rewarding. I found myself impressed with how well structured and choreographed a sequence would be one minute and then seeing something that felt like it might’ve been captured by accident the next. If you wanna teach a masterclass in how to direct movies “realistically” this could probably be a movie to show. Special mention should also go towards the unexpectedly good score for this movie, as well as the perfect use of some more conventional hip-hop and RnB tracks.
Moonlight may not be my personal favorite movie of the year, but I can safely say it’s one of the best movies of the year. We need to see more stories like this in cinema with this kind of exposure and backing, and I can only hope they’re told this well. I’d recommend this to basically everyone, and hope it continues to get more acclaim.
The Media Fire gives this movie a 9/10
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Good news! Rogue One is pretty solid. I probably wouldn’t say it’s as good as Force Awakens, and I can safely say I had problems with it, but it’s a fun ride and a promising indication of things to come if we’re really gonna live in a world where Star Wars gets shoved down our throats every December. I mean I’d like it just as much as everyone if Disney didn’t have to squeeze every drop of money out of every property that comes this way, but if they don’t get any worse than this, I won’t be complaining.
Rogue One more or less serves as an extended excuse to do the purest form of what Disney feels is the safest bet it can do with Star Wars at this point: keep redressing the classic Original Trilogy ephemera Star Wars fans know and love in new packaging with just enough tweaks to keep everyone else from getting bored. So, to elaborate, while Force Awakens served as the big “passing the torch” movie to safely transition fans into a new storyline without actually changing anything too much, Rogue One aims to instead give us a prequel story that literally takes us up to right before the beginning of A New Hope. We follow a ragtag group of rebel soldiers execute a mission to basically A) find out there’s a Death Star and there’s a way to destroy it and B) steal the plans that will help them actually DO that.
The best parts about Rogue One for me were the parts that actually felt new and that elaborated on things we’d seen before in new ways. Rogue One marks a landmark achievement for Star Wars, in my opinion, by being the first “mainstream” installment in the Star Wars cannon to feature truly morally grey protagonists. These guys are a pretty far cry from the idealistic Lukes or Finns or Reys; these are the guys who get the job done and don’t get to feel good about it afterwords. It almost automatically makes these characters more appealing and more interesting, and what depth these character may lack is mostly made up for by how good the performances are. There’s some standout new fan favorites among the characters here that I really got a kick out of. The movie also plays around with the concept of different factions of the rebel alliance. I don’t wanna spoil or delve into it too deeply, but it’s immensely satisfying and fascinating to me to see something I thought I knew, in a different light. The movie is also structured really well. It’s rare to see each successive act of a movie consistently build on itself, but Rogue One does it with aplomb, leading to a third act that’s genuinely awesome. The flaws I did have with Rogue One were the ones I kinda expected. The movie occasionally grinds to a halt to remind you “Hey, the Original Trilogy exists” and I kinda just wish movies would stop doing that now. I know they won’t, but I wish they did. There’s also some CGI work on some certain, somewhat spoiler-y, aspects of the film that I totally missed because I wasn’t looking for them but I’m sure will drive anyone with a better eye for CGI work insane. That’s thankfully the only bad effects work in the film because the rest of it is a brilliant incorporation of practical and computer effects.
Most likely you’ve already seen Rogue One or have decided weather or not you’re going to see it, so this review won’t change any minds. Still, Rogue One‘s pretty darn solid, a nice indication that Star Wars can still surprise us, and hopefully a good indication of what to expect from future spin-offs. I had fun, and if you haven’t seen it already I hope you have fun with it, too.
The Media Fire gives this movie a 8.4/10
The end of the year is almost upon us and hopefully I’ll have my end of year lists up soon! Until then, I’ll be trying to catch up on what I missed in 2016. Hope everyone’s having some Happy Holidays, and I’ll see you all next time!
