After 242 award nominations and 186 wins — including three Oscars and a near-perfect rating on Metacritic.com — we finally get to see "Moonlight" here in Japan with all the burdens of raised expectations. Can any film possibly live up to all that hype?
Drum roll please ... oh, the suspense ... the answer is: "La La Land"!
Touche. But seriously, just like the musical it beat for this year's best picture Oscar, "Moonlight" is a pretty good film that has been embarrassingly over-hyped. Split into three acts — two intriguing, one tedious — the film follows a troubled, possibly queer kid named Chiron (also confusingly known as "Little" and "Black") as he grows up on Miami's mean streets. Like "Boyhood," it's not so much a story-driven film as one that seeks to find truth in life's fleeting moments.