Green Book - 5 nominations

Best Picture - Jim Burke, Charles B. Wessler, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly and Nick Vallelonga

Actor in a Leading Role, Viggo Mortensen
Actor in a Supporting Role, Mahershala Ali
Film Editing, Patrick J. Don Vito
Writing (Original Screenplay), Written by Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly

Green Book is based on the true story of Dr. Donald Shirley, renowned concert pianist and his musical tour of the south with his trio.  As he prepares for the tour, he engages Tony "Lip" Vallelonga to serve as his driver and personal security staff.  In the film, Tony Lip comes from a tough Italian neighborhood and holds prejudicial views about a number of different people with diverse backgrounds.  Dr. Shirley is a highly educated, refined, intellectual elitist who insists on doing the right thing at all times, but has a lonely existence without close relationships with family or friends.  Over the course of the film, a friendship grows between the two men as their differences fade and they each get glimpses into each other's worlds.

Taken on its own, the film celebrates what it means to see the humanity of the other and how that creates change in people who are racist.  The evolution of racism to humanity and connection is one that makes us feel good, which I think is the reason that people like this film so much.  There is another side to this movie, however, in which Dr. Shirley's family disputes the film's narrative vehemently (who remembers my admonition that "based on a true story" does not mean "IS the true story?"), and I read that Mahershala Ali called Shirley's family to apologize for the film.  Hard to know what to make of that.

I don't know what is true, but the bottom line is that watching the film feels good and heartwarming and uplifting.  The screenplay as written is beautiful.  Given all I have learned about the reality of the story, it's hard to support the Best Picture nomination, but, if this were written as purely invented story, I think I would have loved it.  Given that, I have no choice but to embrace the film as it is and hope that it continues to teach important lessons to those who still somehow need to learn that we are all people and that relationships are about who we are, not what we are.  

Moonlight - 8 nominations

Best Picture - Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner

Actor in a Supporting Role - Mahershala Ali

Actress in a Supporting Role - Naomie Harris

Cinematography - James Laxton

Directing - Barry Jenkins

Film Editing - Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon

Original Score - Nicholas Britell

Adapted Screenplay - Screenplay by Barry Jenkins; Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney

Moonlight is a beautiful film told in three acts.  Act I follows the first part of a life, in which a child with a crackhead mother must fend for himself until he meets someone who teaches him about life and cares for him... despite the fact that this role model is a drug dealer.  But he's a drug dealer with a heart of gold who takes the boy into his life and makes sure he is safe and has a strong male stabilizing influence in contrast to what the child's mother is ill-equipped to provide.  In Act II, the child has grown up a bit and is now a teenager who is picked on while he tries to navigate the world with a mother who is increasingly desperate and more and more addicted to drugs and bad choices. He finds one single friend who is his lighthouse in the darkness, who cares about him and treats him with respect.  Only an act of the deepest kind of betrayal can shatter the life our protagonist is living. In Act III, the young man is grown up, and is a product of the difficult life he has led.  He is now the one responsible for his choices, and longs for the authentic and giving love he so rarely had in his life.

Everything about Moonlight is beautiful and heartbreaking.  Each phase of life ends with the haunting transition of a black screen and police lights, as if to say that this constant barrage of disappointments and loneliness can only have one inevitable conclusion.  Every actor who plays a third of this person's life is incredible - and I think everyone who sees the film will be especially touched by Mahershala Ali's quiet portrayal of the drug dealer father figure - his kindness could be felt through the screen.  I'm shocked that Trevante Rhodes (Act III) was not also nominated for his incredible performance as Black.  I just watched the film a second time, and again, I was overwhelmed.  There is not a sour note throughout the film.  In fact, when I saw Moonlight for the first time, I was shocked by what happened in the theater.  Most of the time when you go to a movie, as the credits begin to roll, people begin shuffling and collecting their belongings, some people stay seated to watch the credits and others leave.  Not so with Moonlight.  EVERYONE in the theater just stayed still.  Nobody moved.  It was as if we were all too stunned with what we just witnessed and needed a moment to take it in as a community.  That is the mark of a truly outstanding film.  And that's just what Moonlight deserved, as are all of its 8 nominations.