because we're in a time where art like this just gets praised over and over. my girlfriend and I left the theater talking about the tone surrounding La La Land at the Oscars and how the public seemed to have decided that movie was just too white to win and how Moonlight was a win for disenfranchised and creative and young people.

I'm fine with people feeling that way, or taking to this movie because it puts their experience on screen in a way they've never been able to show to other people or watch themselves, but I don't think it was actually that great of a film (I'm talking about Get Out; I could flip a coin between La La, Moonlight and Manchester). It was a decent ride with some smart ideas that got caught up in a movie that never fully committed to what it was; for me, it felt more like 15 minute vignettes of different ways walking into a white, country home can be terrifying for an urban black man than a cohesive film.

the tension, as you said earlier in this thread, wasn't mounting for me. it never settled in; I constantly felt uneasy but the tone swung so wildly from scene to scene and the character's fear level reset so frequently that I just didn't get as invested as I wanted.

plus you can put me in the camp that the bodysnatcher stuff really just felt like checking boxes of "things white people secretly think about black people" at that point. either it should've been the angle for most of the movie or it should've been saved for some kind of spin-off or sequel.

again, I enjoyed it, but I'm surprised (and not...) at how effusive the praise is for this movie as a film. love the idea, like the execution.

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