Moonlight - This is one hell of a special cinematic achievement. The fact that this film exists at all is a minor miracle but that it has wound up impeccably flawless is quite another. This is a coming of age character study that is long overdue and I say that as a straight white male.
There is such sensitivity exuded in all of the performances... most notably from Mahershala Ali in Act 1, Jharrel Jerome in Act 2, Trevante Rhodes and André Holland in Act 3 and Naomie Harris all the way through all merit praise. But, most deservedly, that credit belongs to director Barry Jenkins without whom this film would not exist.
This will be the best reviewed film of the year. It would be the favorite to win Best Picture already if not for a certain musical romance that doubles as a love letter to Hollywood and old school cinema from years gone past. 9.5/10 (FYI, I don't give out perfect 10s until I get to revisit a film for a 2nd screening.)
Lion - For an aspiring Best Picture contender, this film turned out to be a major disappointment. Excessively heavy-handed with the Google Earth connection playing out like an infomercial courtesy of incidental characters who were promptly disposed of and unnecessary romantic tension between Dev Patel's Saroo and Rooney Mara's Lucy that felt needlessly tacked on. The only memorable acting on display came courtesy of Nicole Kidman in a single scene where she was effectively monologuing to the camera prior to the blatant button-pushing of the final 20 minutes which, admittedly, worked as the majority of the theater was in tears. 5.5/10
Aquarius - This was a well-acted but largely unfocused effort shouldered by an outstanding performance courtesy of Brazilian veteran Sonia Braga. I'm not sure a battle of wills between the sole remaining tenant of an apartment complex and a real estate developer needed close to 2 1/2 hours of material or an expansive 3-act structure (which seemed to be the theme of the day) but it was still watchable thanks to Braga even though the story beats seemed to get recycled endlessly. 7/10
The Belko Experiment - Despite some trademark amusing one-liners courtesy of James Gunn's first script post-Guardians of the Galaxy and a relatively expansive cast list of memorable Hollywood B-listers for the genre, this latest take on the Battle Royale gimmick fails to tread into original territory. There's some requisite nice gore but you've seen all of these same story beats before and this feels like wasted potential. Watching it just a few short days after the superior Free Fire certainly didn't do it any favors. 5/10
The Handmaiden - I'm not sure what I was expecting from Chan-wook Park's first combined writing/directorial effort since 2009's Thirst (and only his third since wrapping up his famous Vengeance trilogy) but I know I wasn't expecting such a visually arresting period thriller. The production design on display is award-worthy. Not only that but I haven't seen this much female-on-female eroticism on screen since Blue is the Warmest Color. Not that I'm complaining at all.
This felt like a live-action smutty seinen manga... the kind that don't get animated because they dare to have a plot. The consistent fusion of both Japanese and Korean dialogue reinforced this perception and, while this film is unabashedly trashy and the way the plot played out was wholly predictable, it was still a thoroughly enthralling movie from beginning to end with a mystery that peeled away like an onion and didn't feel lengthy in the slightest - although it may well feel shorter in certain markets upon release thanks to some expected censorship (which was thankfully absent from this cut). 9/10
