Moonlight

Well acted and skillfully filmed, Moonlight reminded me of Precious and Beast of the Southern Wild. It’s a harrowing tale of a certain black experience, wherein there seems to be a frustrating lack of social workers. It’s difficult to know what the hero “Chiron” wants or needs out of life. How does a character express a need for self-discovery or acceptance? Nevertheless, he does what heroes do: he searches for answers. The revelations are more emotional than suspenseful, and at the end you wonder where the characters will go from there. But at the moment that the curtain finally falls, you feel that Chiron may have found temporary peace. A worthwhile goal in life, but is it too abstract for a movie? Will one artist’s vision of peace resonate with everyone who sees it? Maybe not, but it’s worth a shot.

Harry Benson: Shoot First

Worthwhile documentary about a Scottish photographer famous for covering the Beatles and numerous world events. His timing, being in the right place at the right time with a camera, was impeccable. Nice personal story, too, about the man and his family.

48 Hours to Live

Structured like a film noir, this low-budget dance/club movie won’t resonate. You can either dance or you can kill, but you can’t really do both.

Passengers

Sci-fi movies often ask you to suspend your disbelief a couple of times at the beginning. You have to believe in the future, in space travel, and in time travel. As long as they can set the story in motion, and as long as the story is still about humanity, this can work. But if you ask the audience to suspend their disbelief TOO MANY times, logic start to seep through the cracks, and the movie gets ruined. That’s Passengers, which crashes with a big, astronomical THUD at the end. At a certain point, you begin asking logic questions, and space is no place for logic...

Rogue One

Seeing this a second time is still thoroughly enjoyable. Watching the motley crew of the galaxy’s unshaven, swarthy outcasts kick imperial ass and sacrifice their lives makes for a thrilling night at the movies.