> Last weekend I watched Moonlight, Barry Jenkins’s remarkable coming-of-age film, again. It was a Friday night at BAM, and the screening was completely sold out. Early on, though, one scene made me realize I might have picked a bad audience: It’s in the first third of the movie, where our young hero Chiron is sitting at the dining table with this surrogate parents, Juan and Teresa (Mahershala Ali and Janelle Monáe). He asks them, point-blank, “What’s a faggot?” It’s a moment that feels like a gut punch. When I first saw it, I held my breath, waiting to hear what Juan would say. He explained that it was a negative word used to describe men who liked other men. Then came the next question, “Am I a faggot?” A group of women behind me started giggling at the first question and were full-on laughing by the second — so much so that they drowned out Juan’s response. I was perplexed: Were we watching the same movie?
>In the darkness of a theater, no one can see you side-eye. And perhaps emboldened, the laughter only got worse as the film went on. There was a noticeable pattern: Every time there was any expression of gay male intimacy, they laughed. They tittered during the scene where teen Chiron has his first sexual experience on a beach, and they let out wolf whistles when we first meet adult Chiron, shirtless and muscular. (Although to be fair, I thought something similar in my head). And while we got to the film’s emotional climax, the diner scene between Chiron and his grown-up crush Kevin, it was like they were a studio audience watching a sitcom.
>He asks them, point-blank, “What’s a faggot?" ... Then came the next question, “Am I a faggot?"
That sounds hilarious, what's the problem?
Kevin Campbell
Black plebs are notoriously homophobic.
Brandon Sanchez
>black kid doesn't know what faggot means and parents calmly explain how it's a derogatory term
is this sci-fi?
Andrew Perry
>gay beta asian man thinks random women will find the experience similar to his no
Landon Green
Depends. Where does it take place? And how old is he asking that question?
Josiah Walker
The writer and director probably intended it as so anyway. The "journalist" is just being a faggot SJW.
Joshua Sullivan
Oh, by the subject line I thought you meant they laughed at actual moonlight.
Thomas Edwards
people actually pay money to see movies about gay niggas?
Dominic Bell
STOP ENJOYING THINGS IN A WAY THEY WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO REEEEEEEEEE
t. faggot
Nolan Nguyen
I can assure you that theater was filled with niggers who had the appropriate response to this retarded movie.
Landon Young
I would if they were from outer space
Grayson Cox
>they let out wolf whistles when we first meet adult Chiron, shirtless and muscular. (Although to be fair, I thought something similar in my head)
Asher Reyes
...
Alexander Wright
>I also think this is why audiences outside of the mainstream upscale Hollywood-liberal bubble are laughing at the movie, as a writer posted in Vulture last week in a post called “The Sad Surreal Experience of Seeing An Audience Laugh at Moonlight“—the writer posted about the differences of seeing the movie at a press screening and then seeing it with a paying audience at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on a packed Friday night, noting that the audience was rejecting scenes and laughing at them in the way the scenes portrayed sexuality. I don’t think the audience is wrong in the way the writer takes them to task—their reaction is real and if that’s “sad” and “surreal” to you then I think you might be a bit out of touch—I think that audience is more hip and modern than the sentimental narrative wants us to believe. The movie approaches everything way too evasively and with such solemnity that I’m not surprised paying audiences are giggling at the self-seriousness of the movie and its lack of being upfront about shit. In the beach scene involving the teens Chiron and Kevin the movie slows down and starts talking poetically—I cry so much I’ll turn into drops, Chiron says at one point. There’s half a kiss—no tongue, no skin, no flesh, no reciprocating. No matter how damaged and passive Chiron might be this would be the films opportunity for him—and the movie—to explode with awkward passion—let all the pent up feelings finally out in this secret moment. And maybe this would scare Kevin who we have assumed is straight up until now and would have laid the groundwork for the severe beating that happens later—which still after two viewings makes absolutely no dramatic sense to me at all except that the movie just wants it to happen.
Xavier Wood
what?
Jonathan Moore
FAG
Ryder Stewart
fucking yaoi fangirls
Hudson Bennett
WE FLY HIGH NO LIE YOU KNOW THIS
Levi Reyes
>WHAAA WHAAA M-MOMMY THEY LAUGHED AT THE MOVIE I LOVE SO BLACK PEOPLE WOULD THINK I"M COOL AND HIP AND ONE OF THEM WHAAA
he could've told the people who laughed to be quiet, instead he gave them a "side eye" meaning "i'm passively aggressively judging you with my enormous intellect". i have an image in my head of the guy who wrote this and i'm sure i'm spot on.
another thing, i had my few shares of unpleasant theater experience when people laugh like a bunch of monkeys (although they were all comedy movies but still i never found myself laughing out loud at something, i think it's of a passive way to signal "HEY LOOK EVERYONE! I GOT THE JOKE! ME IS SMART XDD"), anyway my point is that since it happened to me i feel like i can do it to anyone the same anyone did it to me. they laughed when i felt it was stupid to laugh so i'll do the same. careful not to cut yourself with that last sentence.
Colton Gray
I paid to watch gayniggas from outer space.
David Clark
Moonlight pleads for pity for a gay, black character, and pity is always for the weak.
Parker Morales
I'M LITERALLY SHAKING
David Nelson
>and they let out wolf whistles when we first meet adult Chiron, shirtless and muscular. (Although to be fair, I thought something similar in my head).
it's a "it's wrong only when others do it" episode
Ryder Anderson
When I saw it I thought his mother called him a faggot in that one scene where you can't hear her.
Dylan Lee
holy shit whoever wrote this is a colossal flaming faggot
Hudson Gutierrez
Does the author mention how the women who are being rude during the movie are black?
Ryan Lee
>DUDE GROWING UP IN THE PROJECTS AND BEING POOR IS HARD >DUDE HAVING SHIT A PARENT CRACKHEAD SINGLE MOTHER IS HARD >DUDE GODFATHER FIGURE IS A DRUG DEALER WITH A HEART OF GOLD >DUDE I'M BLACK **AND** GAY >DUDE THERE'S NO ESCAPE FROM SOCIOECONOMIC DISADVANTAGES AND THE "HOOD LIFE" EVEN THOUGH THOUSANDS OF POOR WHITE, ASIAN AND EVEN BLACK FAMILIES DO IT EVERYDAY THROUGH KNOWING THE VALUE OF EDUCATION >DUDE SUPER HOT GODMOTHER FIGURE WHO MAKES HIM QUESTION HIS GAYNESS EVEN MORE IN A WEIRD CONFUSING WILL THEY WON'T THEY BOY/OLDER WOMAN DYNAMIC >DUDE HE BECAME A DRUG DEALER TOO EVEN THOUGH DRUGS RUINED HIS MOTHER'S LIFE AND THUS HIS OWN. HE BECAME WHAT HIS DRUG DEALER GODFATHER WARNED HIM AGAINST. >DUDE ALL STRONG MALE FRIENDSHIPS ARE SECRETLY HOMOEROTIC >DUDE HOW TRAGIC IS THE LIFE OF YOUR AVERAGE GAY AFRICAN AMERICAN BOY GROWING UP IN THE GHETTO WHO DINDU NUFFIN, WHO HAS AN ABUSIVE MOTHER BUT IS RESCUED BY A DRUG DEALER FROM THAT LIFE, BUT THEN BECOMES THAT WHICH HURT HIM MOST ANYWAY. >DUDE TIME IS A FLAT CIRCLE AND HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF. IT'S POTTERY >LMAOOOOOOOOIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Nathan Phillips
GREEN'D
fkn saved
Camden Myers
>they let out wolf whistles when we first meet adult Chiron, shirtless and muscular. (Although to be fair, I thought something similar in my head)
Would you put lewd thoughts in his head Sup Forums?
Isaiah Howard
What is it with journalism that turns you into an ultra fucking feminine bitch?
Blake Martin
Wouldn't you?
Looking at the big dumb old thing, just shining in the night.
Benjamin Campbell
what the fuck, Americans have literally ruined the west.
Joseph Robinson
>(Although to be fair, I thought something similar in my head)
Ethan Cruz
I like pseudo intellectual movies and I would have laughed at this too.
Gays are silly.
Wyatt Perez
>tfw I always watch every movie up for best picture >tfw I really don't want to have to watch this I hope it's not nominated
Cooper Bailey
what you want another #oscarssowhite?
Caleb Gutierrez
Yes please
Joshua Cooper
I can't understand a word they are saying.
What does I'm out here mean? What does get his ass mean?
Carson Young
It was a decent movie. You're missing out
Luis Bailey
I always skip the ones about homos or black people (e.g. 12 Years a Slave and Dallas Buyers Club), so this one gets a double nope from me
Tyler Reed
>EYUP MOM WAT A FAGGOT BE
>THEY EAT THE POOPY SON EAT THE POOPY
>FUCK STANKY ASS NIGGERS
how is this for naturalistic dialog?
Cameron Jones
If you tried to make a serious scene and your audience is laughing at it then you failed as a director or your audience is autistic
Cameron Rogers
6/10, needs more insults directed at Spike Lee and comparisons to a "21st century minstrel show for white guilt liberal" to be Armond-tier
Jayden Phillips
The sad thing is they were probably the very people he thought he made this movie for (common niggers from "da hood")
Sebastian Collins
>gay movie >for people from da hood
your retarded
William Williams
The writer of the article sounds like an ass and needs to stop taking things so seriously. sounds like they need a good laugh.
Gabriel Morales
fpbp
Austin Sullivan
>a man wants to shove his dick into another man's ass
How is this not hilarious? Homosexuality is inherently funny.
Gavin Thomas
The writer is an over sensitive faggot but movie going audiences now are fucking morons. I wouldn't be surprised if the offending person perched up and laughed at "faggot" and then went back to stuffing their face full of food and back to social media.
Jackson Lee
And this is why you don't watch actual films at the theatre.
It should be exclusively a place to watch plebshit.
>Claims to know Armond. >doesn't even read his reviews.
typical Sup Forums pleb faker
Christian Ross
>I found it very interesting that my responses were laudable and appropriate and their responses were not. Just thought everyone would like to know.
What a virtue signalling faggot.
Also >A group of women behind me started giggling clearly they were black women, but they fail to mention that. If they were white, I think the author would let us know that 'interesting' fact.
Henry Kelly
Nigga u gay
Josiah Robinson
Laughter is one of the key signs of discomfort from the average person in any circumstance. From my perception, while you may believe you're right to be offended, put yourself in the shoes of another person. If you've been largely sheltered from the language or the discussions or the behaviors you're witnessing, and if you're experiencing it amongst a group of similar friends, you're likely to react differently to it than if you were alone. This is just how people are. Those girls, were they watching it at home, might feel those moments more viscerally, but social constructs demand that you distance yourself from things you believe you're not supposed to see or like. This explains any number of instances in which men, in particular, act homophobic, as a masking technique to hide any potential understanding of the longing for another man's touch or tenderness, as we saw in "Brokeback Mountain."
This is where I would caution social liberals about a "ZERO tolerance" perspective. We have to be able to process how those who are not us, who have not lived through our pain, who have not even thought we exist, take our experiences on board. The power of Barry Jenkins' work demands that people beyond a black or gay audience see it. That can only be a good thing, because it leads to both awareness and, hopefully, empathy. Pushing anyone away willing to potentially understand us only isolates us more.
Blake Sanders
I don't get what's so special about this movie.
Easton Lewis
Exactly, the fact that an SJW didn't mention the race of the women means they were black.
Nathan Watson
Gay niggas.
Camden Nelson
>Giggling okay >Full on laughing >Wolf Whistling If you did that shit in England and you'd be ejected.
Jaxson Davis
it's about a gay nigger growing up in the hood, it's an instant masterpiece
Eli Adams
blacks are fucking stupid they can't just "pull themselves up by their assstraps" or w/e because they have an 80 IQ with PTSD from abusive parenting
Logan Diaz
Leftists 2 favorite groups.
Niggers and faggots
Jaxon Hughes
gay nigger oscar bait supreme
Tyler White
Fucking faggot, get therapy
Easton Morales
GAY
NIGGAS
Nolan Sullivan
Name me one film about gay niggers that has won an oscar.
Gabriel Young
well googling gay niggas didn't give any useful results..
Nathan Reyes
Is there anything in the world more pretentious than this picture?
Christian Taylor
>giving attention to some random homo that wrote a 1.5 page blog about a movie
you're almost as gay as the guy that wrote this pointless article
Jaxon Ward
Did Armon like moonlight?
Wyatt Phillips
>Although to be fair, I thought something similar in my head Xe is bragging about being a secret catcalling rapey creep shitlord?
Daniel Powell
Only faggots like the moon
Sun masterrace here
Henry Lopez
I don't follow. How's that funny at all?
Eli Ortiz
>>Only faggots like the moon
lol only on Sup Forums
Leo Ross
>half of his face in the dark >half of his face in the light
IT RHYMES
Nathan Ramirez
Lmao
Christopher Collins
blacks hate fags. why doesn't he know that?
Michael Hall
Blacks are homophobic as fuck. I dated a ack guy once and it lead to some awkwardness at times.
Mason Hernandez
>it's a liberal gets annoyed by black movie goers because they are being obnoxious but he pretends it's because they aren't progressive enough episode
Bentley Reed
...
Ian Carter
It must be the delivery that got people laughing.
Adrian Reyes
He asks if he is a faggot you stupid faggot, It's the funniest thing.
Joshua Ortiz
Piccolo doesn't have a penis. Delete this.
Nolan Foster
Or the fact that he is a cocksucker asking if he is a faggot?
Isaac Hall
...
Jayden Jones
that kind of response and experience is rooted in african american culture, which is very macho even for the women.
i am 99% sure the women who laughed at those scenes were black
Robert Stewart
>Expecting women to understand even the plebiest films >Expecting women to understand concepts like affection, self identity, and love.
Jack Richardson
I honestly hope this wins BEST PICTURE. Then black people will go see it because blacks still have a tribalism loyalty to their own kind. Little do they know, they just sat down to watch a long boring movie about a BLACK FAGGOT that's discriminated against by the black community because BLACKS HATE gay people. Then the white hipster libs that only go to ghetto theaters will become TRIGGERED when the BLACKS laugh and get APED-UP by seeing BLACK FAGGOTS on the screen. Then the white hipster libs will have to go home and say FUCK TRUMP FUCK WHITE PEOPLE on their FACEBOOK page to keep from KILLING THEMSELVES out of pure hatred for themselves
Andrew Williams
Its funny that most black people have nothing in common with white liberals yet they vote the same way. If it werent for democrats spending decades telling them that republicans are racist, they wouldnt vote 90% Democrat ever single election
Daniel Gray
>*gasp* >our pet niggers are homophobic >*gasp* Dumb libshits, we already knew this. All of your "pet minorities" are homophobic, racist and ultra religious. Basically, everything you thought you knew is wrong.
Jaxson Lopez
The muslims they so love protecting hate women and gays even more. Liberals are in for many rude awakenings
Blake Kelly
>wolf whistles
Whats a wolf whistle? Can wolves whistle? Is it different from a human whistle?
Anthony Jones
>Making fun of him for being a Trekkie
Jacob Garcia
desu black people probably won't watch the movie as soon as they hear it's about a black faggot.
the black community is completely fucked but to pretend they exist with the exact same conditions as the Jewish community is absurd. you can't just say "they were both minorities, but look one is better than the other therefor genetics." It's a completely reductionist, retarded argument. Jews had a long long time where they were relatively interconnected and could scheme about how they'd survive in goy society.
blacks are just making shit up as they go along. as it turns out being poor and discriminated against generally reinforces the same outcomes.
Christopher Myers
damn good observation m8, have to say i agree completely.