Of note: I’ll have more to say on this topic later in the day, I’m just constricted with time at the moment.
"Moonlight" is a technically better and more artfully impressive movie that "Green Book". However, I just think the final 20, or so, minutes of it are incredibly pretentious. The first two stories were perfect in every way, shape and form -- there was none of the preachy and didactic nature of the last third.
Brett Easton Ellis on “Green Book”": “What’s a movie I really liked that critics missed? It’s gonna be controversial but Green Book is one of those movies. Manohla Dargis said on Oscar night said, ‘Disgusting…how did this happen?’ Justin Chang at the L.A. Times had a breakdown too. And Wesley Morris wrote a brilliant piece about Green Book two days before voters went into the Academy that said ‘this is a movie you cannot support.’ [But] he didn’t convince them, which proved that people like the movie a lot more than critics did, and that critics used their ideology to describe the movie rather than just enjoy the very real pleasantries of the film, which were really about craft, writing, acting, production [values].
“One of the reasons why I know so many who really like that movie is that is one of the only cultural artifacts from last year that really was about hope. A sense of hope between the races. No matter how clumsy or corny you thought it was. Many people were moved by that notion, and a lot of critics rejected because they didn’t feel it was woke enough in the same way as Sorry To Bother You or BlacKkKlansman or Blindspotting. Which are actually very negative movies about bringing people together…bringing together black and white whereas Green Book, in its old fashioned way, said this a possibility, these men can exist, they can love each other. And as hokey as it might seem, a lot of people liked that message, and they wanted to see that.” — Brett Easton Ellis (“White“) in a recent Commonwealth Club chat with moderator Nellie Bowles, N.Y. Times tech and culture reporter.
On “Moonlight”: Asked for his general thoughts about Moonlight, Ellis says “it’s okay…I think it was over-rated. That’s all.” (HE: Yes!) Sensing the chilly reaction to this viewpoint, Ellis adds, “Oh, God…oh, gasp! I said Moonlight was over-rated! Oh, my God! That’s the problem. Saying that and getting that reaction…that self-seriousness about Moonlight is part of the problem. Because you can’t say anything [negative] about Moonlight. You have to love it! You have to love it. Many people don’t.”