00;00;10;12 - 00;00;56;16
Speaker 1
What was you looking at me like? Times. Let me call. You just drove down here? Yeah, I was you shallow for a long time, so I'm not trying to. You know, it all sounds at some point, you got to decide for yourself. You know, you let nobody make that decision.

00;00;56;16 - 00;01;08;16
Speaker 2
You all time. My. The other boys kick his ass all the time. Just found. Good. I'm seeing the new. Ain't it?

00;01;08;25 - 00;01;09;25
Speaker 1
Mary, last time I saw.

00;01;16;27 - 00;01;17;24
Speaker 3
Him, I only.

00;01;18;28 - 00;01;21;04
Speaker 1
Known like.

00;01;21;15 - 00;01;23;24
Speaker 2
No, no, no. You gonna listen to humor.

00;01;24;11 - 00;01;42;13
Speaker 1
Huh? It's you always do that. I see you in, like, a decade. It's not what I expect. What did you expect?

00;01;45;00 - 00;01;51;07
Speaker 3
We do not see my. My baby. Survivors have.

00;01;51;11 - 00;01;55;09
Rob Lee
No stranger.

00;01;57;19 - 00;02;23;02
Rob Lee
Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo. So I'm Rob Lee, and welcome. Howdy. And welcome to a brand new episode of our podcast. Let's watch it again. This is the movie review podcast where we break down some of our favorite movies. And today my guest is Christopher Chester, a designer and print collector living and creating in Baltimore. And I bought Christopher on because he knows movies.

00;02;23;02 - 00;02;29;27
Rob Lee
I mean, that's pretty much the reasoning. And today we're reviewing Moonlight. So welcome to the podcast.

00;02;30;25 - 00;02;50;09
Christopher Chester
Thank you, Rob. Glad to be here. I'm also very hyped to talk about Moonlight as a big A24 fan myself, but also just this movie is very impactful and kind of started off that trend of exploring masculinity, black masculinity, specifically in movies, so unexciting.

00;02;50;26 - 00;03;12;02
Rob Lee
Yeah, absolutely. And I think yeah, I think that's a really good observation to start things off. So, you know, this is where this is kind of the first thing I'm going to ask for you in this scenario here. So I got a synopsis of the film, right. And because you're a person that's watching both recently watched it, I want to see if this is accurate.

00;03;12;02 - 00;03;30;28
Rob Lee
This synopsis is accurate because sometimes you go to a site, you're like, all right, synopsis, a moonlight is like, that's not kind of what happened. I actually associate with that. So I'm going to give you a synopsis. And then, you know, some of these real data points where we start off with the synopsis and I want you to kind of, you know, grade it with this sort of teacher educator mindset that you might have as well.

00;03;30;28 - 00;03;47;02
Rob Lee
So let's let's see what we got a look. This is this is not just a look at three defining chapters of the life of Sharon, a young black man growing up in Miami, his epic journey to manhood is guided by the kindness, support and love of the community that helped raise him.

00;03;47;16 - 00;03;50;29
Speaker 1
Moonlight.

00;03;50;29 - 00;03;57;15
Christopher Chester
I love this sense of epic journey. You're now like, Is growing up in the hood an epic journey or movie?

00;03;58;06 - 00;03;58;20
Speaker 1
Or is it.

00;03;58;20 - 00;04;02;10
Christopher Chester
Just like a read telling of children, of men? You know, I'm saying like.

00;04;03;07 - 00;04;04;15
Speaker 1
And also it's.

00;04;05;08 - 00;04;08;18
Christopher Chester
All like the community embrace and it's like, is it the whole community.

00;04;08;18 - 00;04;11;11
Speaker 1
Though? Well, yes, it's a very small sliver.

00;04;11;11 - 00;04;13;24
Rob Lee
It's it's like the noble drug dealer, if anything.

00;04;14;01 - 00;04;15;02
Speaker 1
And it's like.

00;04;17;06 - 00;04;19;17
Rob Lee
In his man's in sand. Sam's a part of this.

00;04;20;05 - 00;04;32;04
Christopher Chester
I would give that, like, a C plus. It's like a it's like a good G-rated synopsis of that movie. You know, if you have kids in the car and you want to know what Moonlight's about, that's a great synopsis.

00;04;32;25 - 00;04;50;06
Rob Lee
I like it. I like it. I remember one of the things in terms of sort of these these these these black movies is sort of like growing up in the hood. And as I remember, there's one scene before I get to these other bullet points, before we get to the trivia and all, I remember having to explain certain things to my my white counterparts in a job I was in.

00;04;50;19 - 00;04;51;05
Rob Lee
It's like, why.

00;04;51;05 - 00;04;52;05
Speaker 1
Is he why are they using.

00;04;52;05 - 00;04;56;28
Rob Lee
Detergent to clean the tub? I was like, Nah, it's called a bath he's doing.

00;04;57;20 - 00;05;18;03
Christopher Chester
Yeah. There are some white subtle scenes in that movie. I'm glad that you brought that one up because they just kind of show you without saying it. But like he uses, he boils the water in the stove with the hot pot because they don't have hot water in the house. He uses the dish detergent because that's the soap, that's everything.

00;05;18;03 - 00;05;35;11
Christopher Chester
So, you know, like he's taking a bath because, like, there's no running water from the shower. So I it's very like you really put in the the scenario that Sharon is in. And it really shows you that like, they are poor, like there is no money in this house.

00;05;36;00 - 00;05;58;01
Rob Lee
It goes downhill from when we first see his mom to when we last see is my or nearly when we last he his mom will we'll get into that. So I want to start off with a few of these sort of factoids. And this this first one's a little trepidatious as to when the movie was released, because I saw this is part of the Oscars Best Picture Showcase.

00;05;58;14 - 00;06;15;16
Rob Lee
It was part of like ten movies. So, you know, I always look at when I saw the movie versus like when it came out and how I thought this came out in 2017, but it says it came out October 21st of 2016. So maybe a limited release or something like that. But this feels like it was a 2017 movie.

00;06;16;00 - 00;06;16;13
Speaker 1
But hey.

00;06;17;19 - 00;06;37;16
Christopher Chester
I think it's because the Oscars itself always premiere at the beginning of the New Year for the previous year. Yeah. And I remember seeing this at the Charles in Baltimore City because and I know it was 2016 because there was the whole La La Land debacle at the Oscars, which also came out that year.

00;06;39;02 - 00;06;42;26
Rob Lee
Look, I have a running bit about that and I'm not going to go.

00;06;42;26 - 00;06;45;06
Speaker 1
It's just it's.

00;06;45;06 - 00;06;47;20
Rob Lee
Just me going to that. But I get that out of that I with.

00;06;47;20 - 00;06;50;13
Speaker 1
The jazz that because literally.

00;06;51;01 - 00;06;54;05
Rob Lee
The color is what it is really it's just white people to John Legend that's what we got.

00;06;54;05 - 00;06;54;18
Speaker 1
A la la like.

00;06;54;19 - 00;06;58;16
Christopher Chester
Oh my God like the Warner Brothers for all. Just like dancing across the screen.

00;06;59;21 - 00;07;00;18
Rob Lee
Mexican DJ Frog.

00;07;00;28 - 00;07;01;24
Speaker 1
Exactly.

00;07;02;13 - 00;07;10;10
Rob Lee
So this movie was directed by Barry Jenkins. This was his second movie. Like the first one was what is it? A melancholy.

00;07;10;26 - 00;07;11;12
Speaker 1
That that that that.

00;07;12;04 - 00;07;31;11
Rob Lee
I know is later in the notes the just so you know not to bury the lead it won the Academy Award for best picture and you know 2016 or you know into 2017 box office was 65.3 million, budget was one and a half million. So just nothing just, you know, you never know what the marketing budget is for some of these movies.

00;07;31;11 - 00;07;44;24
Rob Lee
But it may have been double, it may have been an additional three, but this is like a huge win for the type of movie. This is IMDB 7.4 out of ten. And I start looking at some of these.

00;07;44;24 - 00;07;46;19
Speaker 1
Right where.

00;07;47;00 - 00;08;02;00
Rob Lee
You start looking at the comparison from, you know, one sort of rating system to another. I used to really be into the rating systems and now I kind of look at who's the valid one, you know what I mean? Like rotten tomatoes, I feel like got a little corrupted and I don't know if it's that in this instance.

00;08;02;11 - 00;08;24;25
Rob Lee
So right tomato gave this a 98% metacritic 99 and Google users, which I think is a little closer to what I'm looking for is about 81 is a really good movie. But I think being near perfect, I don't know. I don't know. When you start seeing these 98, 99 hours, it's like these are maddening reasons. This is.

00;08;25;08 - 00;08;29;00
Speaker 1
Maggie. I know there are a couple of guys.

00;08;29;00 - 00;08;49;08
Christopher Chester
I you know, I always get caught up in the rating system, too. Like I used to go to Rotten Tomatoes for quite a bit just to see what people were looking. And then what I like most about Rotten Tomatoes is that I like the audience score versus like the actual, like critic based score because that's what they kind of hone all that from.

00;08;49;08 - 00;09;09;21
Christopher Chester
And it's always fun to see like what the audience needs and what the critic club or the critic say or what the audience loved. But it is always funny, like what is a perfect movie? And I feel like that's so subjective to to everyone in like when you start adding a label or a number or a grade to the movie and it's like, what is the ultimate movie experience for you?

00;09;09;24 - 00;09;12;07
Christopher Chester
They know they're in this for so many people now.

00;09;12;16 - 00;09;18;21
Rob Lee
And one thing that I've recently added to this sort of scenario, because I'm a letterboxd guy.

00;09;18;21 - 00;09;18;26
Speaker 1
So.

00;09;18;27 - 00;09;41;16
Rob Lee
Always I always look for the one sentence reviews, you know, like, this is insane, this is great. And letterbox, just for posterity sake, gave this a 4.2 out of five. So I was like that. That's that's kind of good. I trust Letterbox a little bit more, but definitely diving into, you know, what people had to say about it, sort of what you were describing Mare with I don't care about the critics as much.

00;09;41;16 - 00;09;52;27
Rob Lee
I care about the actual like people, the people that are going to see this movie. So I now there's usually if there is a movie with murders in it, I don't think there are murders in this movie.

00;09;53;14 - 00;09;58;04
Christopher Chester
Yeah. Nobody nobody's like visibly killed at all. Right?

00;09;58;04 - 00;09;59;29
Speaker 1
Nobody killed at all. Yeah.

00;10;00;06 - 00;10;13;05
Rob Lee
I usually have a body count in here, but this is not that type of movie. But I do have the tagline. Yeah, this kind of goes back to that sort of introduction. The synopsis, the tagline is This is the story of a lifetime.

00;10;13;28 - 00;10;15;04
Christopher Chester
Oh, that's the tagline.

00;10;15;15 - 00;10;17;05
Speaker 1
Yes.

00;10;17;05 - 00;10;29;09
Christopher Chester
Doctor was like such stark word copy. You know, like that's like the norm in some for movies. Like you can put that for any movie like that could be any Marvel movie right there with that tagline.

00;10;29;23 - 00;10;30;29
Speaker 1
I was I was hoping to.

00;10;30;29 - 00;10;31;29
Rob Lee
Get that response.

00;10;31;29 - 00;10;39;05
Speaker 1
Was like absolutely lacking. It was not quite there, guys. It's just I'm like, is it the story of my life?

00;10;39;05 - 00;10;39;28
Christopher Chester
And like.

00;10;40;07 - 00;10;40;25
Speaker 1
Is someone's.

00;10;40;25 - 00;10;41;06
Rob Lee
Lifetime.

00;10;41;09 - 00;10;50;06
Christopher Chester
Story? Like, it's a good life based movie, but like, am I going to be like, damn, can you. I got to watch Moonlight.

00;10;50;06 - 00;11;03;28
Rob Lee
So especially going into it because it's like now maybe retroactively, sure, you can do that. And I was like, Yeah, it's definitely worth a watch under this context. But going into it, these things are decided upon in the marketing of the movie.

00;11;04;15 - 00;11;07;11
Speaker 1
So I was like, Oh yeah, you guys know, you know what I mean?

00;11;08;06 - 00;11;26;25
Rob Lee
So now I want to get into some of the other things and you know, feel free to chime in if you have any like trivia that that really like resonates and pops for you. But I definitely like to get into the weeds. I love trivia. And so I want to start off with Naomi Harris.

00;11;27;16 - 00;11;29;03
Christopher Chester
Oh, yes.

00;11;29;03 - 00;11;42;16
Rob Lee
She shot her entire role in three days in between the promotion tour for Spector. So this is really setting the stage. So back in 2015, due to a visa problem, she had to do all of her stuff the course of 15 years in three days.

00;11;43;12 - 00;11;44;19
Speaker 1
So oh wow.

00;11;44;29 - 00;11;47;10
Rob Lee
Yeah, there's a fair amount of makeup on her. At one.

00;11;47;10 - 00;11;48;17
Speaker 1
Point.

00;11;48;17 - 00;12;01;20
Christopher Chester
That's impressive. I didn't even realize that, like, I read that they shot the whole movie in 25 days. But yeah, just condensing that further to her scenes, only being three days. It's intense. And she really acts in this movie.

00;12;02;07 - 00;12;28;08
Rob Lee
Yeah, she does. She does. Lizzy according to cinematographer James Laxton, Moonlight only had a small budget of $1.5 million, and that was in Variety. Director Barry Jenkins confirmed that in a Q&A at the BFI in London, BFI rather in London, that this was indeed the budget, that this is a lower budget. This is the lower budget by any movie since like Rocky, like the indie, like best picture since Rocky.

00;12;28;08 - 00;12;38;15
Rob Lee
And it was would have been, let's say 1.1. So Rocky was by just comparatively like a small micro-budget movie to do very well.

00;12;38;15 - 00;12;41;04
Speaker 1
Yeah, that's true. I know.

00;12;41;04 - 00;13;19;24
Christopher Chester
That I, I love seeing how a director does fully dives into their directorial style. And I actually remember reading some insight into the budget itself, and a lot of the actors were talking about how in being the filming experience, it's more intimate and specifically like how they themselves are almost involved in the directing, the directing and the scene setting because of how like connected they were to the directing experience and even how it played into the visual and styling for the movie, specifically, why the camera focus looks so soft.

00;13;19;24 - 00;13;58;27
Christopher Chester
They're like not going for like super sharp or high tech kind of technical approach to the shooting. And I loved it. I think it actually aids into the story itself because it's really not even a story that's focused on income or escaping income. If anything, it kind of critiques a lot of the income and the class itself. So it's very interesting to see the duality between how much money went into making this money movie, what the limitations were, and the limitations in the film itself for the people who are struggling with money and how they kind of overcome that struggle to some degree.

00;13;59;19 - 00;14;11;12
Rob Lee
Yeah, yeah. And I like the the sort of like comedy around it. And Barry Jenkins is like, I think the initial response to it was like, yeah, somewhere south of 500 million. And I was like, That's really funny.

00;14;11;21 - 00;14;12;02
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;14;12;05 - 00;14;18;00
Christopher Chester
It was like truly a success for all the distributors and producers involved for that film.

00;14;18;20 - 00;14;46;22
Rob Lee
And it and I think it shows you like, you know, for, for people who want to make a thing that, you know, has some closeness. And I think we'll get back into that a bit where, you know, there are some relations to, you know, Barry Jenkins story, what have you that are represented in this and just kind of getting this movie made, you know, seeing these sort of smaller budgeted things is like if you have an idea and you're able to work with this people and figure it out, it's like you're on a tight, tight schedule.

00;14;47;04 - 00;14;48;08
Rob Lee
You know, you got like sort.

00;14;48;08 - 00;14;48;16
Speaker 1
Of.

00;14;49;14 - 00;15;06;02
Rob Lee
Like a month. You got a month to get this done. You got, you know, pretty much at that time, you know, probably your biggest people are Mahershala and Naomi Harris. And Mahershala is in the movie for like the first like 20 minutes. And yeah, it's, you know, we talked about when Naomi, she wants that for three days and like a piece out.

00;15;06;15 - 00;15;09;27
Rob Lee
So really maximizing it and really having a strategy in place.

00;15;11;01 - 00;15;31;26
Christopher Chester
Yeah, it's, it's very impressive. Like, because Mahershala was doing a lot of he was starting to come more into that scene like publicly was the work that he was doing. And it was interesting to see him and, and even the additional actors that they were bringing in, like Janelle Monae playing Teresa. So like we had like some like visibility between Naomi Harris, Janelle Monae.

00;15;31;27 - 00;15;55;11
Christopher Chester
Mahershala And so it's like of course there's marketing in the fact that these are like black figures in the culture already. And so people are going to be curious and learn a little bit more about this story and then the lead China on being split between three different age range I thought was very interesting because he's he was unknown until the movie itself.

00;15;56;05 - 00;16;15;18
Rob Lee
Yeah. So that scene which I'm going to nominate is one of my favorite scenes a little bit later, but it's a scene where one is teaching a little how to swim. Hershel is really teaching. Alex Ah. Hibbard How to swim. The production staff really did not know how to swim. So it's this actually not actually this is actually, you know, a real thing.

00;16;16;05 - 00;16;26;13
Christopher Chester
Yeah, that's a beautiful thing. Wow. I didn't even realize that that's that is probably one of my favorite scenes as well. And we'll definitely talk more about that a little bit later. I have some thoughts.

00;16;27;04 - 00;16;47;26
Rob Lee
Absolutely. See both Barry Jenkins and writer Terrell Alvin McCrane. His vision was pretty clear and singular in that both men grew up in the same liberal Liberty City neighborhood of Miami with mothers who struggle with drug addiction. Roughly 80% of the film was shot on location there, and most of it in one of the most poverty stricken areas in the U.S..

00;16;48;11 - 00;17;04;14
Rob Lee
Initially, the production was apprehensive due to safety issues, and Jenkins got the word out. Like Logan, the way it's going to be the it's going to be fine. It's going to be fine. And Naomi Harris said that she'd never felt so appreciated and have such an easy shoot in a movie.

00;17;05;14 - 00;17;25;24
Christopher Chester
That's incredible. I did read and know about the Liberty City connection with Barry Jenkins and especially connecting to his childhood to it's very interesting when like a director and a writer both start to reflect their own personal thoughts and their personal upbringing and their work because it feels more real. You don't have to actually say that things are bad.

00;17;26;06 - 00;17;48;01
Christopher Chester
You can show like there are ways to show that things are bad or a situation is bad. Even calling back to the whole that scene again, but even thinking about like traumatically children being forced to like become adults early on and seeing that kind of visualize with little not speaking a word through any of the scenes in Act One.

00;17;48;23 - 00;18;07;01
Rob Lee
Yeah yeah. Yeah. Any in an interview, Barry Jenkins said that the three actors who played Ron never met during production. He wanted each to kind of build their own persona during their respective segments with no influence from the other portrayals. The same technique was used with the actors who played Kevin.

00;18;07;28 - 00;18;36;06
Christopher Chester
That is really cool. I love that because then yeah, there is really no connection. You don't even see pictures of young children between the two that acts like. And it's not that anything about like documenting him by any means. He's just kind of exploring and growing in each particular step. And I think that's that's fascinating because we as the viewer know that's him and he's older and there's just little things that kind of confirm that.

00;18;36;06 - 00;18;39;12
Christopher Chester
But I think that highly for us and to communicate it all.

00;18;40;15 - 00;18;49;13
Rob Lee
Is it a. Is there a certain view that Sharon is just a Pokémon?

00;18;50;20 - 00;18;51;04
Christopher Chester
Like he just.

00;18;51;04 - 00;18;52;13
Speaker 1
Evolves? Yeah.

00;18;53;08 - 00;18;59;17
Rob Lee
And if that is the case, is black. Like, what is he like? He's like Tarzan. Like what? What is he like? What is his?

00;19;00;09 - 00;19;06;07
Christopher Chester
Black is nothing like Charles are like black comes into is. I call that an identity. And like.

00;19;08;27 - 00;19;10;03
Speaker 1
This little.

00;19;10;03 - 00;19;22;18
Christopher Chester
Is like a teenager and always just kind of timid. Still, he's, like, starting to find his confidence. And then, you know, like, the baby for him is a little, little kid. Chiron, I love that.

00;19;22;18 - 00;19;33;23
Rob Lee
The film is based on unproduced play, the In Moonlight Black Boys Left Blue by Black Author Fellow Toro, Alvin McKinney McCraney who you know Liberty City gang gang.

00;19;34;11 - 00;19;36;15
Christopher Chester
But that I didn't realize it was unproduced.

00;19;36;21 - 00;19;49;07
Rob Lee
That's is the thing I think like when we start looking at items that are written and I'm starting to get starting to think about this from a sort of podcast perspective of, you know, people will maybe produce a play.

00;19;49;14 - 00;19;50;03
Speaker 1
Or.

00;19;50;03 - 00;20;08;14
Rob Lee
Write a play or have something in mind, but maybe can't get it out there in the form that they want to, you know, maybe podcasting as a way of doing it, that it's out there and maybe it gets picked up and adapted from, you know, that it exists, that people can consume it. And I'm just been thinking about that more and more, and this almost gives me a version of that.

00;20;08;14 - 00;20;11;26
Rob Lee
Like the play may not come out, but it ultimately was adapted into a movie.

00;20;12;23 - 00;20;17;09
Christopher Chester
Yeah. And I feel like, at least in this form, it's more accessible.

00;20;17;28 - 00;20;18;04
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;20;18;18 - 00;20;44;26
Christopher Chester
There's. I wish more plays were recorded. Like, I do like going to play and seeing Broadway productions, but there is almost a limit to who can actually see them or like access to them, which is why I enjoyed watching Hamilton when I was on Disney. Plus it got a lot of it was very fun to watch people critique that play because, you know, it became everybody was talking about it, but also nobody had seen it.

00;20;45;04 - 00;20;47;23
Christopher Chester
So which was kind of funny to think about.

00;20;48;07 - 00;21;01;23
Rob Lee
I remember looking at I went over there to a café in the home like a neighborhood, and it was two kids that were leaving. That was a good thing. You know the thing, you know, Hamilton's a little overrated. I looked at, I was like, I'm sure your screenplay is going well. Sure, everyone.

00;21;01;23 - 00;21;03;22
Speaker 1
Cares about your opinion.

00;21;05;05 - 00;21;07;07
Christopher Chester
Exactly. Like, I'm not writing plays.

00;21;07;16 - 00;21;09;12
Speaker 1
I think, you know, there's a lot of work.

00;21;10;10 - 00;21;19;11
Rob Lee
So an early meeting with Brad Pitt helped director Barry Jenkins get the necessary funds to distribute in a distribution distribution deal he required for the movie.

00;21;20;14 - 00;21;41;13
Christopher Chester
So I didn't know that because Brad Pitt runs Plan B, right? That's his production company. And I like all of Plan B's movies. They also are the production house for If Beale Street Could Talk and the last black man in San Francisco, which is another one of my favorite black masculinity films.

00;21;41;22 - 00;21;58;08
Rob Lee
So this this goes into the sort of closeness we were describing earlier within the cast and crew. So budgetary constraints for the movie were such that the cast had to share one trailer for costume, hair and makeup. It wasn't one restroom to be shared by the cast and crew.

00;21;59;02 - 00;22;01;29
Speaker 1
Wow, that's true.

00;22;02;02 - 00;22;12;08
Christopher Chester
Yes, it's shooting for a budget for a real Miami Heat. Yeah, for real. And one trailer. Like they had the school trailer out there at that.

00;22;12;08 - 00;22;23;09
Rob Lee
Probably like, bro, can you get out of the shower? I need that. I need to it off like can you are you done yet. You know, like, I think this is all Mahershala is wearing a do rag for most of the movie. He's like an impressionist. This is.

00;22;23;09 - 00;22;26;24
Speaker 1
Exactly.

00;22;26;24 - 00;22;27;17
Christopher Chester
I know. I would.

00;22;28;12 - 00;22;41;08
Rob Lee
So this this aligns with one of the things we were talking about. This is sort of that at the beginning, right? So Mahershala won a cat the Academy Award for best supporting actor for this film with less than 20 minutes of screen time.

00;22;42;27 - 00;22;53;14
Christopher Chester
I mean, his role is so strong. This movie, even for step one. And what's wild about his character is that you feel his presence in the other two acts.

00;22;53;29 - 00;22;54;06
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;22;54;18 - 00;22;59;03
Rob Lee
And definitely in the third act because he black is playing a version of him.

00;22;59;16 - 00;23;13;25
Christopher Chester
Yeah. It's almost well he almost becomes him at that point and even is like taking on this mentor role with his own, you know, dealers that he's overseeing. And well, I'm sure we'll talk about that relationship a bit more, but.

00;23;14;00 - 00;23;14;18
Rob Lee
Absolutely.

00;23;15;02 - 00;23;16;02
Christopher Chester
It's it's. Wow.

00;23;17;00 - 00;23;38;14
Rob Lee
So this is film as we touched on over the course of 25 days in October and November of 2015, in South Florida. Let's see again, Barry Jenkins was inspired by his own childhood in Miami, where he says he always was surrounded by very lush, green and beautiful golden sunsets. He grew up in an awesome neighborhood with some very dark things happening.

00;23;38;15 - 00;23;40;19
Rob Lee
He feels as though his childhood was a beautiful struggle.

00;23;41;11 - 00;23;47;05
Christopher Chester
I think our way of putting it, I feel like a beautiful struggle is a great way of putting living in poverty.

00;23;47;15 - 00;23;47;24
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;23;48;10 - 00;23;58;22
Rob Lee
Because I think like, you know, I lived in the projects or what have you. We never knew. We never knew that this is what it was. You know, we were able to get like pizza bowls. My dad had a car.

00;23;59;02 - 00;24;00;18
Speaker 1
And we.

00;24;00;18 - 00;24;09;02
Rob Lee
You know, we saw different things that were like, oh, as an adult, you kind of like contextualize like, oh, oh, that's what I was seeing. That was a robbery.

00;24;09;05 - 00;24;09;19
Speaker 1
Oh.

00;24;10;06 - 00;24;11;00
Rob Lee
My, whatever.

00;24;11;18 - 00;24;41;08
Christopher Chester
My mother and I talked about this one time, her and she I remember she posed the question to me. She's like, When did you realize that you grew up poor? And I was like, Oh, wow. I was like, I guess I never really thought about that. And she was like, because like, it's a consciousness moment. And I was like, maybe when I get the Micah, like maybe when I started attending and I was meeting people who like had more money than I could comprehend at the time or just like weren't thinking about things in the same vein that I was.

00;24;42;15 - 00;24;49;07
Christopher Chester
But I remember her just kind of posing. I'm like, Wait a minute, we're not all poor.

00;24;49;07 - 00;24;49;24
Rob Lee
Everyone's not.

00;24;49;24 - 00;24;50;07
Speaker 1
Even rice.

00;24;50;07 - 00;24;59;13
Rob Lee
Cakes and asparagus. I mean, that's what I was eating, just frozen asparagus and maybe expired rice cakes. You know, this is fine. It's fine. Where's that? Oh, Dawn to show.

00;25;00;07 - 00;25;00;13
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;25;00;27 - 00;25;01;26
Christopher Chester
Oh, man.

00;25;03;09 - 00;25;25;28
Rob Lee
So. And I know we're going to have ours a little bit later, but apparently, Barry Jenkins favorite scene in this film was the was an impromptu sequence of Paula staring straight at the camera into an over crane to add 400 species frames per second. And it was that last minute decision to specifically engage with the audience and have Polly's character do that.

00;25;25;28 - 00;25;28;12
Rob Lee
And I think they show it twice.

00;25;28;12 - 00;25;34;19
Christopher Chester
Yes, I do remember that they should. It's like that scene transition shot. I like that shot a lot.

00;25;35;27 - 00;25;48;27
Rob Lee
I see the song that plays in the diner, Hello Stranger by Barbara Lewis. So Barry Jenkins made the decision to to actually play the song on the jukebox while they were filming. So it was in the background while they were actually filming, setting that sort of mood.

00;25;50;10 - 00;25;52;06
Christopher Chester
Right. And so okay, I can see that.

00;25;52;27 - 00;26;09;10
Rob Lee
Because a lot of times you have something that goes in the back. It's like you're already, you know, with the advent of more and more greenscreen and things of that nature or, you know, post-production sort of tactics that it's like less stuff that you're interacting with. And it's like, yeah, dance is like, Can I get a song.

00;26;10;00 - 00;26;12;23
Speaker 1
Like, like, wow, it was like.

00;26;13;06 - 00;26;33;19
Rob Lee
This is I'll put the, I'll put it in context. There was a movie, it's not good. It's not in this sort of class, but I think it was a fall from grace. And I just remember it's, it's a top very movie and I just remember watching it and it's so many funny things that happen in it, like Michael Brooks just goes, goes, goes hard.

00;26;34;02 - 00;26;47;09
Rob Lee
And literally he's wearing a hot face and he's like, ashtray bitch. And I was like, Wow, this is amazing. And there's a scene in a diner in it where it's a guy, he's in the shot, he's eating from a plate that has no food in it.

00;26;48;01 - 00;26;48;22
Speaker 1
You keep.

00;26;48;23 - 00;27;07;25
Rob Lee
Showing them. I was like, and I'm watching part now. It's like, you know, can you pause it right here? Because we do this thing where if we're watching a movie, we count like like is, is, is, is soccer is football is like, all right, how much like stoppage play have we had? Like, if this two hour movie takes us 3 hours to watch, it has to be a bad movie.

00;27;07;25 - 00;27;09;03
Rob Lee
We've had a, you know, half of the.

00;27;09;03 - 00;27;10;10
Speaker 1
Time we've.

00;27;10;10 - 00;27;11;07
Rob Lee
Stopped. Yeah. Yeah, we do.

00;27;11;07 - 00;27;12;07
Christopher Chester
It's a fun game.

00;27;12;07 - 00;27;12;19
Speaker 1
Okay.

00;27;13;13 - 00;27;15;23
Rob Lee
And we look at the number of production companies or writers.

00;27;16;09 - 00;27;25;12
Christopher Chester
Yeah, yeah, we do that too. Definitely. Look at the number of production companies is a good one to take a look at. I I've never done the stoppage counter.

00;27;25;12 - 00;27;33;17
Rob Lee
You should do that. It's it's fun. It's very fun. I think at a point when I was watching what is it, malignant, I was like, Can we pause it real quick? I think you were at a.

00;27;33;24 - 00;27;34;16
Speaker 1
Fifth or sixth.

00;27;34;16 - 00;27;36;03
Rob Lee
Pause and we were the first 20 minutes.

00;27;36;16 - 00;27;38;28
Christopher Chester
That was me watching Barbarian.

00;27;38;28 - 00;27;53;19
Rob Lee
We all talk. We'll be talking about that. I, I had this sort of realization that kind of, like, washed over me. I was like, Oh, this is just a bad movie. And I was able to enjoy it from that point on because that was really like. So I hear, this is good, let's figure it out.

00;27;53;24 - 00;27;56;18
Speaker 1
Oh, this is shit. Oh, got it going. It's a.

00;27;56;18 - 00;28;03;28
Christopher Chester
Movie. Like, knowing that it's probably bad, it's always a very rewarding experience because there's like, less expectation. Yeah.

00;28;05;03 - 00;28;32;22
Rob Lee
So the, the light flashes and, and I kind of noticed this yesterday because this is, I think maybe the second time I've only seen the movie twice, but I tend to remember movies really well. The light flashes and the transitions between chapters or actually an out-of-focus digital timecode from the camera slate. During filming, the actress was sprayed with oil so their skin would shine on the camera and the crew would hold this running slate against the lenses to protect them from the sprays.

00;28;33;02 - 00;28;36;09
Rob Lee
And Barry Jenkins wanted to keep that code and he thought it was a good effect.

00;28;37;13 - 00;28;45;10
Christopher Chester
Right. Is really cool. I love like analog effects like that. I mean, I couldn't even figure that out, you know.

00;28;45;25 - 00;28;48;19
Speaker 1
Because I. Why is this in there? Because I was looking at was like.

00;28;48;27 - 00;29;03;19
Rob Lee
Is this something that is like really too in infocus are we really up on something? And to give you some extra context, I was watching because I was doing another review. I was watching this after I watched See before because I'm doing a review once before.

00;29;04;06 - 00;29;08;06
Speaker 1
Two very different movies. Yeah.

00;29;08;06 - 00;29;19;13
Rob Lee
So producer Dede Gardner is the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Picture, or her first was the it was 12 Years a Slave in 2013.

00;29;19;27 - 00;29;24;13
Christopher Chester
Mm. Okay. Yeah, that's. I've only seen that movie once, that's all.

00;29;25;00 - 00;29;25;24
Speaker 1
Uh huh.

00;29;26;11 - 00;29;27;25
Rob Lee
I refuse.

00;29;27;25 - 00;29;31;12
Christopher Chester
That's all. A horror movie. That's a one and done movie right there.

00;29;31;20 - 00;29;33;21
Rob Lee
Because I mean, isn't Magneto like a slave owners and.

00;29;34;04 - 00;29;46;20
Speaker 1
Yet isn't that was having a low budget I call actors by their Marvel characters that is so funny.

00;29;46;20 - 00;30;03;05
Rob Lee
Moonlight has a very diverse score with music ranging from orchestral to chop to Screwed, and that's a big shout out to Nicholas Britell, who's the composer who decided to chop and screw the orchestra to create a unique sound. So it's chopped to screw orchestral music in this movie.

00;30;03;12 - 00;30;21;07
Christopher Chester
That is really cool. I think it also speaks to their culture and where they are as well, where they're shooting. I was I noticed that on my second watch I would say, Oh, this is because they would play the orchestra, especially like in transitions. And then in scenes where they're not transitioning, it would be chopped and screwed.

00;30;21;08 - 00;30;22;17
Rob Lee
This is the first.

00;30;22;19 - 00;30;23;26
Speaker 1
LBGTQ.

00;30;23;27 - 00;30;51;29
Rob Lee
I Batman. It's a lot of other letters. They only have four in here, the lead film and a film featuring all-Black cast who won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Mahershala is the first person of Muslim faith to win an Academy Award for acting. So Naomi Harris is very reluctant to play a crack addict in this movie. She always has this sort of title telling persona, and so this was like kind of playing against type for her.

00;30;52;10 - 00;30;58;27
Rob Lee
She's like, All right, I had to look at some in preparation. She spent a month researching the lives of drug addicts by watching videos on YouTube.

00;30;59;17 - 00;31;08;23
Christopher Chester
Oh, my God, what a depressing rabbit hole. I mean, it's it is really rough to watch her character deteriorate between all three acts.

00;31;09;11 - 00;31;15;21
Rob Lee
Yes. And when you first see her, you're like, oh, okay. Yeah, she's just a mom that's not around. Maybe she worked a double and then it's like, Oh, you suck.

00;31;16;09 - 00;31;22;06
Christopher Chester
Yeah, yeah. And you're like, Oh, like, this isn't like, this isn't going where I think it's going.

00;31;22;11 - 00;31;35;28
Rob Lee
I think you're going to know this one. I think you're going to know this one. This is not even like this is when you find out this is what this character's name actually means. You're like, Oh, okay, that makes sense. So Sharon is the name of a center in Greek mythology known as the wounded healer.

00;31;37;03 - 00;31;46;08
Christopher Chester
That's cool. Mm. I knew I heard the name somewhere, but I did not know that it was a Greek origin at the movie Prince And I like that.

00;31;47;07 - 00;32;05;23
Rob Lee
Because then it almost does this thing of like, you know, Robert Christopher is these are kind of like, Oh, these are none. These are kind of like regular, like, like just regular names, I guess, or non ethnically coded names. And initially upon watching, I was like, that's that's a that's a black name, right? And it's like, no, actually, it's a Greek name.

00;32;06;02 - 00;32;10;18
Rob Lee
And it shows maybe sort of their overlap that I've played the resume game before. I would just say.

00;32;10;18 - 00;32;12;18
Speaker 1
That really like.

00;32;14;08 - 00;32;18;19
Rob Lee
My brother's name is a lot different from mine, that Antoine is spelled very black and I'm like, All right.

00;32;18;19 - 00;32;19;07
Speaker 1
So yeah.

00;32;19;08 - 00;32;25;06
Christopher Chester
I have a Barry White passing name for sure, like Gray and big American Lee. Ambiguous.

00;32;26;23 - 00;32;28;00
Speaker 1
I would look like.

00;32;30;13 - 00;32;34;23
Rob Lee
Sometimes they look at that middle name sometimes as like Jamarcus and I don't know about that.

00;32;35;06 - 00;32;36;01
Christopher Chester
Like James.

00;32;36;01 - 00;32;43;16
Speaker 1
I'm sorry, James, who was like, Yeah, they got people named Tyron. It's fine. Yeah, exactly.

00;32;45;00 - 00;33;04;02
Rob Lee
So let's see, there is a song because there are some music cues in this movie and I think there are several. Good is a good use of music in this movie. There is a an Aretha Franklin song called One Step Ahead that plays twice in a film. The first act it is in a classroom. Classroom after Sharon gets home from the swimming lesson.

00;33;04;06 - 00;33;07;25
Rob Lee
You know, also you can hear it in the diner, on the jukebox, in the third act.

00;33;09;10 - 00;33;14;12
Christopher Chester
I love that I was thinking about that song because it sounds pretty popular. Sampled, too.

00;33;14;29 - 00;33;15;05
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;33;16;05 - 00;33;27;09
Rob Lee
I see. The This is the second film to be officially screened at the National Museum of African-American History and Culture when it opened in D.C. and this was in September of 2016.

00;33;28;00 - 00;33;29;01
Christopher Chester
What was the first film?

00;33;30;23 - 00;33;32;27
Speaker 1
And I think what we both know.

00;33;34;14 - 00;33;36;03
Rob Lee
Is like.

00;33;36;03 - 00;33;38;04
Speaker 1
Oh, no, no, no, guys.

00;33;39;04 - 00;33;41;15
Rob Lee
What did that to you is it's like The Wiz and like.

00;33;41;15 - 00;33;45;22
Speaker 1
It's actually and.

00;33;46;06 - 00;33;57;08
Rob Lee
So this again, goes to your your bullet point about kind of where Hershel was at and this sort of and this was part of the Best Picture showcase as well for me. Both Mahershala and Janelle Monae, both were a hidden figures as well.

00;33;57;25 - 00;33;58;07
Christopher Chester
Yes.

00;33;58;21 - 00;34;00;17
Rob Lee
Yeah. The same year. The same.

00;34;00;17 - 00;34;03;22
Christopher Chester
Year. There was a good, good movie rollout.

00;34;03;22 - 00;34;07;07
Rob Lee
And it's like their roles in terms of size were kind of flipped.

00;34;07;27 - 00;34;08;10
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;34;09;02 - 00;34;27;28
Rob Lee
Like her role is smaller in, in and moonlight, but is still, I think, an integral role. And she's around for more than one act of let's see. So Barry Jenkins started writing the screenplay for this movie in Brussels at a bar called Lord.

00;34;27;28 - 00;34;28;13
Speaker 1
Byron.

00;34;29;19 - 00;34;43;17
Rob Lee
In the this is the first Academy Award best picture winner for a black filmmaker who directed and wrote the screenplay. Wrote the screenplay, see. And it was the 89th Academy Awards. Do we want to talk about that like right now? Do we want to just kind of wedge into that right now like these?

00;34;43;18 - 00;34;48;18
Christopher Chester
We go right into it. Yeah, we could get into it because I was watching it live when it happened.

00;34;49;08 - 00;35;10;15
Speaker 1
To my family. My mom, Papa Jeff Olmos was at the MAP Playoff. You kick this off and Damien Chazelle, we're standing on your shoulders. We lost, by the way. But you know, guys, I'm sorry. No, there's a mistake. Moonlight. You guys won best picture. We might run from us. This is not a joke. This is not a joke.

00;35;10;15 - 00;35;17;15
Speaker 1
I'm afraid they read the wrong thing. This is. This is not a joke. Moonlight has won best picture.

00;35;17;15 - 00;35;36;19
Rob Lee
So I was watching it live. And so we do the whole. So this is like this is March Madness for us in some regards is absolutely. So we do the best picture showcase and say, all right, let's get to this point. So we're watching it and I've been making fun of La La Land the entire night with my jazz hands.

00;35;36;28 - 00;35;58;06
Rob Lee
And then we get to it and I'm playing. I'm very much caught on as I am, but I observe, I'm very much caught on like what's happening here. And I think this is around that point. I don't know if this was before, after the whole OscarsSoWhite thing was going on and all of that. And I remember they make the announcement and I was like, What is all of this going on in the background?

00;35;58;17 - 00;36;01;04
Rob Lee
And my girls like, What? She walks away, she's like, This is bullshit.

00;36;01;04 - 00;36;03;03
Speaker 1
I can't believe in la la land. This is bullshit.

00;36;03;03 - 00;36;04;25
Rob Lee
Jazz is dead. It's nothing like.

00;36;04;25 - 00;36;06;05
Speaker 1
That. Jesus actually, you just go.

00;36;06;12 - 00;36;26;13
Rob Lee
She's like, I'm going get some more wine. And I was like, No, no, no, no, come on, come on, come back. And she was like, Why are they talking? Then why this warm body look confused? I was like, Well, you know, maybe. Thanks. He's so a dick Tracy. I don't know. But and then when they make the announcement, I still think it was a little short shrift because it's just it's just bad.

00;36;26;13 - 00;36;32;27
Rob Lee
It was a bad sort of, you know, flub, if you will. What was your take on that? And tell me about your experience there.

00;36;33;06 - 00;37;01;20
Christopher Chester
I thought it was wild because everybody was very confused that stage and then the cast more like barely got the on stage that same night. They didn't get to actually like giving speeches and like kind of die man and like somebody else had the call. It was almost like they weren't trying to say it at first. And then somebody like somebody spoke, if I remember correctly, somebody took the prompt, somebody else had it and took the prompter, had the right one and was talking about it.

00;37;01;20 - 00;37;23;01
Christopher Chester
They like came up and announced it and then did the whole switcheroo, but then they didn't give them the time that they needed. But I thought it was very funny. I thought it was perfect. I thought there was a lot of dark humor and I didn't read it like being racist truthfully, because I was just like this. The Oscars are for people that watch a lot of movies.

00;37;23;01 - 00;37;28;11
Christopher Chester
All right. So like this, this won't be a defining black male until like three months from now.

00;37;29;18 - 00;37;31;02
Speaker 1
Can all.

00;37;31;06 - 00;37;45;08
Christopher Chester
Like, access this movie and actually see it for ourselves. But it was nice to kind of see it come to fruition. I, I watched la la land, you know, where are you going? Like la la land on your mind.

00;37;45;16 - 00;37;47;17
Speaker 1
You know, I it's.

00;37;47;29 - 00;37;59;03
Christopher Chester
You know, I hate to say the movie. I like the way it's shot. It's got some other problems. But I can't. I like what's his name?

00;37;59;03 - 00;38;01;06
Rob Lee
Damien Chazelle.

00;38;01;19 - 00;38;11;00
Christopher Chester
Yeah, Damien Chazelle, the director. I like his movies. So, like, he got me with La La Land. But I did think The Moonlight was a much better movie at the time that it came out.

00;38;11;25 - 00;38;13;17
Speaker 1
Yeah, well, yeah, I didn't.

00;38;13;17 - 00;38;35;02
Christopher Chester
Get it to do. I didn't get excited. I think people just kind of brushed it off, and I think it was necessary for people to see that this is one an independent film, that one that was a huge win for production houses like A24 and Plan B in an era where we have a lot of just like, you know, we have a lot of manufactured like drums.

00;38;35;13 - 00;39;08;09
Christopher Chester
Half the stuff that comes out is either comic related or like series related. We don't have like a lot of original content and theaters anymore. So it was very important to kind of see like a first time director covering a very like not niche topic, but a specific topic within a minority background. And so, you know, it was like very sensitive overall and I thought that it was very bold for it to have one and almost unexpected.

00;39;08;10 - 00;39;40;09
Christopher Chester
I think the unexpected, it was just, you know, our tolerance at the time and also just how people were managing their expectations as well. Thinking about it as like automatically going in that a black friend wouldn't get this kind of accolade or nomination and they cleaned up. It got quite a few awards and nominations and then circuit and you know, I hadn't watched it until we were prepping for their show, but I remember seeing it in theaters and then all my second time I was like, Then this is a good movie.

00;39;40;16 - 00;39;41;08
Christopher Chester
Like Yeah.

00;39;41;09 - 00;40;02;08
Rob Lee
And this is this is Barry Jenkins second movie. This is the first one was a Medicine for Melancholy, which was from 2008. Yeah. So this is his first one in about eight years. It was a, you know, dude that's not really known for directing, you know, kind of just crushing it, right? And yeah, I would say and maybe, you know, it's very old.

00;40;02;08 - 00;40;23;12
Rob Lee
It's very, you know, a lot of the things that have happened in that sort of circuit. The Academy Awards is very old and dated. And we've had some moments most recently where and I think when someone's moment because we care about moments for whatever reason, I don't know why I kind of prefer the prince thing of I don't do it for awards or what have you.

00;40;23;21 - 00;40;32;29
Rob Lee
Yeah, I think if that's what we're doing, if we have to care, if we had to care about like Taylor Swift not getting her moment, then maybe we do the following year.

00;40;32;29 - 00;40;33;10
Speaker 1
Where.

00;40;34;18 - 00;40;58;21
Rob Lee
This is where we botched it last year. So like in the 2017 for the for 2017 main and beginning was like, yeah, look here's the forecast from you know moonlight years. They got 5 minutes here you know drop your mic or whatever and you know, maybe Questlove should get that the next one because his thing was definitely, you know, stepped on with a, you know, slapped on, if you will.

00;40;58;21 - 00;40;59;21
Christopher Chester
I agree.

00;41;00;29 - 00;41;20;28
Rob Lee
So I got to get two more I got two more bullet points here that I thought they were very interesting. So despite the characters both being the same age, Andre Holland, who plays adult Kevin and Trevante Rhodes, who plays Adult Black, it's like this one. They're ten years apart, age and you can kind of see some of those fine lines creep it out over.

00;41;21;21 - 00;41;22;28
Speaker 1
I was like I.

00;41;22;28 - 00;41;24;17
Rob Lee
Was like, jail is harder you wasn't it, bro?

00;41;25;16 - 00;41;27;05
Christopher Chester
They're supposed to be the same age.

00;41;27;17 - 00;41;27;25
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;41;28;00 - 00;41;30;29
Christopher Chester
Like, like actual actor was like. Really?

00;41;31;23 - 00;41;40;24
Rob Lee
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're good because I think when we see the movie, so if this was ten years because I was, I got to do that math. There are supposed to be 28.

00;41;41;12 - 00;41;42;05
Christopher Chester
Oh, whoa.

00;41;42;07 - 00;41;50;10
Rob Lee
I've been 28 years because if you look at it like it's over the course of 15 years and we were running into little he's like 12, 13.

00;41;51;00 - 00;41;56;04
Christopher Chester
I mean, that Florida sun right there, you know.

00;41;56;04 - 00;41;59;07
Rob Lee
That black was when I was like Sarah less let's create Robert.

00;41;59;19 - 00;42;03;08
Christopher Chester
That's why we got that's why people in the black community got to wear sunscreen. All right.

00;42;03;12 - 00;42;05;20
Speaker 1
You know.

00;42;05;20 - 00;42;23;25
Rob Lee
So this is this is the last one. This is the last one. And I thought this was great because I you know, I love action movies. So Burr from both Mahershala Ali and from Aunty Rose are featured in the Predator film franchise. Ali appears in Predators from 2010. Who he's great. He's he's he's like, I think he's like, I'm in a massage.

00;42;23;26 - 00;42;24;20
Speaker 1
I got that.

00;42;24;29 - 00;42;33;05
Rob Lee
And Rose is in the Predator, which is not so great. And it's, it's is a bad movie, but he's in it. So here you go from I've been in front of every franchise.

00;42;34;01 - 00;42;40;17
Christopher Chester
Make up they need to find a way to like link you know, deliver continuity, see how they can like include the man. But, well.

00;42;41;06 - 00;42;53;09
Rob Lee
It, it's almost like when in the Star Wars, like sort of reboots or whatever that was, that is a toy that came out of was like thin categories. And I was like, hold out.

00;42;53;09 - 00;42;55;09
Speaker 1
Let's not every.

00;42;55;09 - 00;43;18;19
Rob Lee
Black person in, you know, far off our galaxy from here can't be related. So so I want to I want to go into this part here. And this is kind of the the back in the more of analysis side of things, I want to talk about impact of the movie, which we kind of touched on a little bit, some of the themes that are there, some observations, favorite scenes and you know, kind of like final thoughts, MVP, things of that nature.

00;43;18;19 - 00;43;41;21
Rob Lee
So want to started off with themes and impact. What are your takes on this movie? And you know the last 5 to 6 years like you know, how is this like shaped you know, how we kind of talk about black masculinity, the intersection between blackness, masculinity, vulnerability and even this theme of water, which is in there. And we talked about a little bit with this woman lesson.

00;43;41;21 - 00;44;04;04
Speaker 6
I like to pick on men. What you mean you always land on people. So what I got to do, I got to do. So I saw. But I think so. I know, I know. But it don't mean that they don't know. Come on. Wonderful to pick on you every day.

00;44;04;20 - 00;44;34;11
Christopher Chester
You know, I think it's really it was a good entryway into black identity and especially exploring the complexity of masculinity. And it kind of just it's critique of like toxic masculinity. I thought was interesting, too. Like, there's all these expectations that men shouldn't do certain things. There is a scene where Kevin Teenage Cabin and Teenage Sharon are talking on the beach and they're sharing a blunt.

00;44;34;25 - 00;45;02;05
Christopher Chester
And they, you know, Kevin's like, they talk about crime, you know? Yeah. And Kevin, why I don't cry. You think I'm from the ground away? Like, trying to play it tough and we're all opened up, and he's just like, I cry. All right. You can see how he relates that, how he wished he could just, like, wash away, like how he would just turn into tears if he could.

00;45;02;05 - 00;45;34;10
Christopher Chester
And I thought that was interesting. And specifically, like, it's not the writing, is it from a perspective where it's trying to like diminish or destroy like what it is to be heterosexual, right? It's just it's observing like the lack of safety and masculinity, you know, and how people how boys or black men have to be strong and they have to be these figures, even when they're not ready to be adults like Sharon, never really gets to be a kid.

00;45;34;15 - 00;45;53;08
Christopher Chester
Like we see him playing with the other boys, but he dreads having to go back home because that's when he has to be an adult. That's when he has to, like, take care of his mother or get told to go somewhere else. But like there there are very few moments, even in his teenage years, where he gets to just be a teenager.

00;45;53;11 - 00;46;09;15
Christopher Chester
We don't actually see him hang out with anybody other than Kevin. And even when he is hanging with Kevin, it's like, you know, we see him talk the most with him and barely even Theresa, which is also interesting to think about there.

00;46;10;05 - 00;46;17;01
Rob Lee
And we have this sort of like like you were touching on like in each one of these instances. I think there's this sort of.

00;46;17;01 - 00;46;18;16
Speaker 1
Duality where you.

00;46;18;16 - 00;46;34;16
Rob Lee
Can kind of open up a little bit. You know, you can open up around Kevin, you could open up around Theresa. But on the back side of it with Kevin, there's the bullies that are there to and all of that. And then you have going home, you know, have you is like how are you safest with a guy that always has a gun on him, you know what I mean?

00;46;34;16 - 00;46;59;06
Rob Lee
And it's is a thing and I think this sort of sage like advice, I think that comes from an unlikely source in being someone that is a dope dealer and having what comes with it. And I thought, you know, sort of this scene, right? You talk about crying, right? That Mahershala is like in tears actually when he has to tell him like, oh yeah, yeah, he sold him drugs.

00;46;59;14 - 00;47;00;24
Speaker 1
No one from me.

00;47;01;03 - 00;47;27;12
Christopher Chester
I think that is probably my favorite scene in the movie and I really captures Mahershala his ability to act in that role, where we see Mahershala dealing with his own duality and identity, both becoming the caretaker for Jerome, but also destroying his own family because like he is supplying his mother with drugs and also the wine before law.

00;47;27;12 - 00;47;51;17
Christopher Chester
And Mahershala is character acknowledging that like he is sorry, he is at fault for at some points the life that Karen is forced to live and him come crying and coming to tears that that is him knowing that he's at fault. He doesn't try to like play at all. He doesn't try to hide his like his guilt or his emotions there.

00;47;51;17 - 00;48;11;05
Christopher Chester
And I think that's a great overview of like what a relationship between an adult and a child could be. Like the adult showing that they are at fault, showing that they are vulnerable to children. And what it shows to be vulnerable, where you're put in positions of being questioned and knowing that you are at fault for those things.

00;48;11;05 - 00;48;37;08
Christopher Chester
And I think it shows something that's rare in black communities where there is a equal level between parent and child and not so much the ownership of parent and child where we see Charlene's mother owning out like, you know, Aiden, Tommy, as yet you're mine. It's like I'm your mother and you're going to do what I say. You have money on you, Paul.

00;48;37;24 - 00;48;59;27
Christopher Chester
Teresa gave you money. That's my money. Now, like these. These things that I have seen, not in my own life, but I've observed in life, you know, growing up with people and seeing this kind of thought forced adulthood expectation. And it's interesting that they would use a dope dealer to show a vulnerability in that way. And I love his character for that.

00;49;00;19 - 00;49;02;21
Speaker 1
Yeah, I think you know.

00;49;03;04 - 00;49;40;11
Rob Lee
When I start thinking about this, this movie and rewatching it, I the the first act is probably my favorite because of that, because you get a lot of that in there. And it's not to diminish from it, but it's more and more closer to it. I think it's seen it as an adult, you know what I mean? Like, oh, no, no, I've been that as part of the being a kid is so far removed and not having that, you know, that sort of experience, it felt more like fiction and it's like, oh yeah, like, you know, the sort of role that one is playing.

00;49;40;11 - 00;50;02;28
Rob Lee
I've been in that spot before now as an adult. I've never had I never been in the little spot, you know what I mean? And yeah, it's really interesting to see to see that in you using him almost as an avatar to kind of switch out some of these things like water is a big thing right in the whole swimming lesson and using him as the vehicle to do that, you know, black people swim.

00;50;02;29 - 00;50;05;00
Rob Lee
We don't sleep at all. We don't touch the water.

00;50;05;24 - 00;50;07;24
Speaker 1
You know, I don't know how I swam away.

00;50;08;06 - 00;50;11;08
Christopher Chester
I don't not as well at all. And it's.

00;50;11;08 - 00;50;12;03
Rob Lee
I always up.

00;50;12;14 - 00;50;12;28
Speaker 1
Yeah, for.

00;50;12;28 - 00;50;29;27
Christopher Chester
Real. Like what I got to do. But yeah, I love, like, you know, it's fun to kind of see that because many a friend has tried to teach me how to swim, but I'm like, Damn, I'm gonna not trust anybody to teach me how to swim. Like, there's that moment of trust.

00;50;30;12 - 00;50;33;01
Rob Lee
It's like they just put you here, you know, in my hand, brothers, I ain't.

00;50;33;02 - 00;50;35;23
Christopher Chester
Got nothing doing all of that like you.

00;50;35;23 - 00;50;39;18
Rob Lee
I just like I'm like, I'm 64. I'll, like, I'll just. I'll just stand up in the water. That's cool.

00;50;39;18 - 00;50;40;17
Speaker 1
Right? Yeah, exactly.

00;50;40;19 - 00;50;42;14
Christopher Chester
You know, do that thing where your hands are down.

00;50;43;03 - 00;50;45;16
Speaker 1
In the water, you're like pretty.

00;50;45;21 - 00;50;47;11
Christopher Chester
Good swimmer, but you're only that shallow.

00;50;47;11 - 00;50;51;14
Rob Lee
And it's like you are just walking. You are Godzilla.

00;50;51;21 - 00;50;55;26
Christopher Chester
Yeah, exactly. You're just doing your crab walk in the water. That boy.

00;50;55;26 - 00;51;16;02
Rob Lee
Have you have you ever run into this? Sort of. Because I know I've gotten it. You don't want to be perceived as soft because going to get bullied more like, you know, that sort of conversation that happens earlier in the movie. And, you know, there's a lot going on in that scene. But still, I think that sentiment is there.

00;51;16;12 - 00;51;35;27
Rob Lee
And I just remember having those instances where getting getting sort of like bullied or what have you because it's like I was always a big kid, but I was the one that stood out like, Oh, let's pick on this guy and let's see if he's soft or not. And, you know, it's it's definitely a conversation and a consideration that happens.

00;51;36;29 - 00;52;00;10
Christopher Chester
I think it's interesting because there were moments in my childhood where I would definitely pretend to be much stronger or or like kind of give off a sense that I'm, like, aggressive than I really was. And I think that kind of just came with, like, the expectations of boys. Like, we all heard the term My boys don't cry, yeah, like keep your chin up and things like that.

00;52;01;10 - 00;52;02;01
Rob Lee
Stiff upper lip.

00;52;02;24 - 00;52;06;19
Speaker 1
Expressions, it's just, it's like it's.

00;52;07;01 - 00;52;37;29
Christopher Chester
It's hard though. Like, I don't think I had many family figures that would say stuff like that to me, but I definitely can think about the transition when people were starting to think about like how men should be perceived or like tend to like, you know, being opened up. And it's kind of around in my early twenties when I start to see that like the early 20 tens where I was just thinking about what was expected of me, you know, like being okay.

00;52;37;29 - 00;53;18;10
Christopher Chester
And I start to open up and I think a lot of those early like forced close offs and like this forced pretending of like being strong and has kind of affected a lot of communication, at least in black communities. Like even in myself, I struggle to communicate how I feel a lot of times because sometimes there is the perceived notion that I got to see it through and that I don't have the time to process those feelings and like Chiron, even in that, like in to after he gets to do the stand up, knock down game and he goes home and he cuts his face, nice, nice bath and like he looks at himself and

00;53;18;10 - 00;53;38;17
Christopher Chester
it's like he's not even crying. Anybody is just like, he's just got to see it through. He already has another goal in mind and we know what their goal is for what the follow up is. But like I, he doesn't speak at all, you know, exactly what he's saying. Like, yeah, there's not any moment in this movie where he is crying by himself.

00;53;38;17 - 00;53;52;05
Christopher Chester
There are few, few times where he starts to tear up, but we never see little. Or at least not at one cry. We barely see him cry in act two. And it's not until Act Three that we even see that he shed a tear.

00;53;52;28 - 00;54;16;17
Rob Lee
Yeah, because it's, it's sort of like this, this line that he said. And I think a lot of us run into that where we build ourselves back up harder. You know, once we have one of those sort of breaking moments and it's like you're restoring the foundation in some regards. And it's at a point where it's like the thing my therapist used to tell me, the, the pressure cooker, it's like there's steam that comes out and eventually it's going to boil over.

00;54;16;17 - 00;54;17;07
Rob Lee
And I think.

00;54;17;18 - 00;54;18;04
Speaker 1
What we're.

00;54;18;04 - 00;54;39;29
Rob Lee
We're getting there at a certain point is it's boiling over. But it is this sort of point where we get a lot of those payoffs and that third act. And we're going to go back into that in a moment. I want to talk about some observations real quick. And this is, I think, definitely good. So I think I think this movie is has a certain visual language that looks really good.

00;54;39;29 - 00;54;42;28
Rob Lee
They they shoot black folk well, which I think is one of the.

00;54;42;28 - 00;54;43;10
Speaker 1
Things.

00;54;44;02 - 00;55;00;16
Rob Lee
That when you have black folks involved in the cinematography, in the shooting and sort of how we're directing things, you get those different shades. You don't just get, you know, just, wow, this everyone looks like they everyone looks like led.

00;55;00;16 - 00;55;02;08
Speaker 1
Everyone this is the color.

00;55;02;08 - 00;55;04;25
Rob Lee
Of my beard is like, what is this about?

00;55;04;25 - 00;55;11;07
Christopher Chester
Like just unlockable fighting game characters, you know, just like there's a lot of like choose your black fighter. Like, there.

00;55;11;08 - 00;55;11;20
Speaker 1
Was that.

00;55;11;20 - 00;55;19;07
Rob Lee
Nude spot and like, I think one confessing. And again, going back to that.

00;55;19;11 - 00;55;31;14
Speaker 1
As you do hear the tension, their names call me with this trigger to stay away. And who am you nosy niggas and now I.

00;55;31;24 - 00;55;49;20
Rob Lee
And you know you're very spot on it's like I think I look at him as almost this enlightened uncle and it is very, you know, very just great acting. And it was it was sad. It was sad and, you know, not having to see it. But I think that was just a point. It wasn't like this is kind of the end.

00;55;49;20 - 00;55;58;19
Rob Lee
And, you know, that's the last time we see the one one is referenced a couple of times, but that's the last time we see him. But it doesn't mean that's the last time that they interacted, you know.

00;55;58;29 - 00;55;59;23
Christopher Chester
Exactly.

00;56;00;07 - 00;56;13;21
Rob Lee
Yeah. And a boy, Kevin, a wild boy. You know, there's one scene every time that he's talking, I'm like, you are ridiculous. I was thinking, this shorty's back at us when I was like, Oh.

00;56;14;00 - 00;56;16;29
Speaker 1
I was like, Run that back, you know? Yeah.

00;56;17;22 - 00;56;34;11
Rob Lee
I mean, I did this thing right. I did this thing. And as I remember when I watched it, like I said, I've only seen it twice. And upon rewatching it, I laughed at the same part. I laughed at it when I first saw it, I knew it was still effective. I'm going to ask you, which part was I laughing that.

00;56;34;17 - 00;56;36;11
Speaker 1
Well it has to do with Kevin? Wasn't the.

00;56;36;11 - 00;56;37;02
Christopher Chester
First dream.

00;56;38;20 - 00;56;39;08
Rob Lee
We have on the.

00;56;39;08 - 00;56;41;21
Speaker 1
Beach? Oh, all of the beach.

00;56;43;23 - 00;56;56;29
Rob Lee
After the beach scene. And he tries to die above. He looks at us and I start laughing so hard. I like, Yeah, you're still a dude. You're like these other hand, bro. Like, let's see if.

00;56;57;01 - 00;57;00;17
Speaker 1
Yeah, that's yours, brother.

00;57;00;17 - 00;57;12;00
Christopher Chester
That's funny because I was looking at that scene again, but I didn't catch that the first time, but I caught it then secondary. Like I just felt that they were like, take, take it back into the moment I take it.

00;57;12;00 - 00;57;12;29
Speaker 1
Out of.

00;57;13;13 - 00;57;18;07
Christopher Chester
That. But I thought you were talking about the dream. When Kevin tells a med school about he's.

00;57;18;07 - 00;57;19;09
Speaker 1
Going to find.

00;57;19;09 - 00;57;22;14
Christopher Chester
Out that he has the dream about him doing like the sex trade.

00;57;22;14 - 00;57;24;05
Speaker 1
With like you grab black if.

00;57;25;21 - 00;57;32;17
Rob Lee
That's actually great. I was like, yo, can you can you do something different? You can you be a different person for like 5 seconds?

00;57;33;11 - 00;57;33;22
Speaker 1
Yeah, that.

00;57;33;23 - 00;57;39;12
Christopher Chester
My passing is hilarious.

00;57;39;12 - 00;57;48;16
Rob Lee
So so I want to I want to go into favorite scenes unless you had any observations you wanted to throw in there real quick. But if not, we can go to these favorite scenes.

00;57;49;16 - 00;57;54;17
Christopher Chester
Oh yeah. Let's get into the favorite scenes now. Right. I'll probably talk on a couple observations too.

00;57;55;07 - 00;57;55;15
Speaker 1
Okay.

00;57;56;15 - 00;57;59;18
Rob Lee
I, I think my, my favorite scenes are the swimming scene.

00;58;00;17 - 00;58;17;19
Speaker 1
That you hit the rest of my life. I've got to. I promise not to let you go. Hey, man, I got you. There you go. Visit that right there.

00;58;17;19 - 00;58;21;07
Speaker 3
You a little world.

00;58;21;07 - 00;58;29;03
Rob Lee
I think it's both of these scenes are together. I think it's Paula Wong confronting Paula and then him admitting to selling drugs to her.

00;58;29;29 - 00;58;31;00
Speaker 1
Motherfucker, you.

00;58;32;06 - 00;58;46;28
Speaker 2
Know, give me that. You got to get it from somewhere. Shit, nigga, I'm getting it from you. But you won't raise my son though. Ray. You ever see the way he was.

00;58;47;11 - 00;58;51;01
Speaker 1
When you walked in their mouth? Yeah, he.

00;58;51;01 - 00;58;53;01
Rob Lee
Was. She was on one.

00;58;53;29 - 00;58;54;09
Speaker 1
Literally.

00;58;54;21 - 00;59;18;01
Christopher Chester
That scene. She was all one literally like when and it's interesting because he already knows her car. And the thing is, before we even get to this, he wan already knows who she is and he almost doesn't know what to do. And I can tell that he's trying to almost have conversations with her, but she's shutting him off because, like, she doesn't want Sharon to know they have a relationship.

00;59;18;18 - 00;59;24;10
Christopher Chester
And that scene is very funny. But she's like, What you want to do? Raise my side? And it's just like, you see the way.

00;59;24;10 - 00;59;24;26
Rob Lee
He walks.

00;59;24;26 - 00;59;26;25
Speaker 1
Like, whoa, yeah, yeah.

00;59;27;25 - 00;59;50;02
Christopher Chester
And that scene was crazy because it ends up time to that final scene where he's like, Tell him to keep his head up. No, no, nobody calling you. That's that slur. And like, it's interesting because his mother doesn't even support him. You know, there's this boy is barely ten years old and like your mom is already like my son's gay and.

00;59;50;05 - 00;59;51;21
Speaker 1
She's you and I talked.

00;59;51;21 - 00;59;54;04
Rob Lee
To your slur. She's using the top tier slur.

00;59;54;13 - 00;59;55;13
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah.

00;59;56;00 - 01;00;03;22
Rob Lee
I like when when one is like, no, no. Well, what it is, is and it's going well and then Teresa is like.

01;00;04;18 - 01;00;05;27
Christopher Chester
Come, stop right here.

01;00;06;12 - 01;00;06;29
Rob Lee
It's like two.

01;00;07;04 - 01;00;07;13
Christopher Chester
Is like.

01;00;07;23 - 01;00;18;20
Rob Lee
You into that unless you like he's like just like, no, no, I well, I love revenge. So obviously when Tyrone has a seat, as it were.

01;00;19;11 - 01;00;37;00
Speaker 1
I'm like, yes, get him out of here. Oh, well, I'm glad they were.

01;00;37;00 - 01;01;18;14
Christopher Chester
Awarded the viewer with that because that's very much what teenagers would do. You know, like they kind of built up rage, that aggression, like not knowing how to take those feelings out and like that how aggression builds up, I thought was a good way of how to show that. I particularly also like the fight scene because even though Tyrell has no idea that like it's our own and Kevin have this relationship and Kevin is force to hide himself, you know, but Chiron, who, you know, is following one's advice, is present.

01;01;18;14 - 01;01;42;28
Christopher Chester
He's visible, he's not backing down. His head is held high, and he's just taking all of these heads, you know, and he's he's defending himself in a way that is kind of multilayered. Like he's defending himself in his sexuality. He's defending himself in his confidence as a person. And also like he's fighting for what he believes in, which I think is a beautiful thing.

01;01;43;18 - 01;01;58;08
Rob Lee
And yeah, not being soft and even echoing what I think happens in that prior, I think is the prior scene where he goes over Theresa's house because he gets kicked out and she's like, No, no, we you know, we keep our heads held high here in this house and a stable.

01;01;59;14 - 01;02;13;17
Christopher Chester
100%. And it's those elements of wine that stick with you throughout the whole movie. Even in act two with that scene and even in that three ones, you, Sharon, basically becomes one at that point. Another one of my friends.

01;02;14;06 - 01;02;18;05
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. One or the.

01;02;18;15 - 01;02;28;10
Christopher Chester
The sneaking to Act three. My favorite scene in there, probably that almost made me cry was the scene where he visits his mother to rehabilitation center.

01;02;28;10 - 01;02;29;08
Rob Lee
I have that one. Yeah.

01;02;30;01 - 01;02;48;03
Speaker 2
I love you, Sharon. I do. I love you, man. You ain't got to love me. Lord knows I did not have love when you needed. I know that.

01;02;48;15 - 01;03;26;10
Christopher Chester
And man, that scene is rough. Like, I think I took I took a couple of notes on that and it's wild to watch like a parent understand how their actions have, like, destroyed a relationship with their children. It's another thing to see, like, a parent apologize for that. And her line when she's like she still has love for him even though he doesn't love her is like that's like the that sounded serious, like good writing in the way that she's acting it out and is the only time that we see one of the few times that we see Sharon cry.

01;03;26;24 - 01;03;30;11
Christopher Chester
And there's just like a silent ear, you know, because he he can't look at her.

01;03;30;15 - 01;03;41;20
Rob Lee
Because he goes. He does the thing that I've done a little bit where he's like, Oh, I want to react real quick, which you won't do for me. I was like, Oh, oh, that sounds familiar. When He gets some. He like reasons I.

01;03;42;18 - 01;03;45;07
Speaker 1
Say, yes, you know the thing you're doing.

01;03;46;04 - 01;04;11;28
Rob Lee
But but but I think it shows in as far as like watching it from a critical lens that it shows like this is how they were able to shoot and maximize Naomi Harris being on set because she's only interacting with like each actor at different stages. She's acting briefly with Mahershala and the Alex, Alex Hibbert, and then she's acting with each Sharon at different ages or what have you.

01;04;12;03 - 01;04;17;09
Rob Lee
So it's like, let me get my scene with Trayvon Lindsay, get my scene with Ashton Sanders, and then let's let's let's keep it rolling.

01;04;17;26 - 01;04;23;00
Christopher Chester
It's interesting that she is also the only character that I interact with her on at all Three Eyes.

01;04;23;17 - 01;04;23;26
Speaker 1
Mm.

01;04;25;07 - 01;04;43;10
Christopher Chester
And I thought it was nice that they show his mother at that stage where she's like, she's trying to get better. But also she knows that she, her health is, is poor and like they could have killed her offscreen. But I don't think it's the same effect as while I'm dying.

01;04;43;10 - 01;04;45;06
Rob Lee
OFFSCREEN Yeah.

01;04;45;22 - 01;05;05;09
Christopher Chester
Like we kind of needed to see that older child parent relationship to kind of show that like relationships evolve over time and that it is difficult to balance the love you may have, the love you may or may not have for a parent, and just how you see them in your life as well.

01;05;06;10 - 01;05;22;01
Rob Lee
Yeah. To see. Yeah. Got really two more things and then we get that final verdict. All right. So, yeah, uh, let's see. So who's the MVP of this movie? And make make your case, if you will?

01;05;22;06 - 01;05;26;28
Christopher Chester
Oh, MVP of this movie.

01;05;26;28 - 01;05;31;11
Rob Lee
Is it 824? Is it is it.

01;05;31;11 - 01;05;32;11
Speaker 1
Mahershala is.

01;05;32;11 - 01;05;35;12
Rob Lee
A Barry Jenkins.

01;05;35;12 - 01;06;08;08
Christopher Chester
You know, I think it is. I'll have to say Barry Jenkins and probably, you know, 824 on this and plan B because this is a story that probably otherwise would not have gotten picked up by anybody like no bigger house would have made this film. I think it was also very bold and also empowering and of Barry Jenkins, who is a heterosexual name to make this movie and also not put too much of his own commentary.

01;06;08;08 - 01;06;39;26
Christopher Chester
And so like what he feels his stance at least on on sexuality. And I do find, though, that that was like very telling, you know, of shit without having to say I'm an ally because he's telling stories that wouldn't be told otherwise. And so with Moonlight being made and having written that, like, we can get additional stories that continue to be explored in this particular area of black identity.

01;06;39;26 - 01;07;01;16
Christopher Chester
So I would definitely say, like if I'm looking at it like who made the movie Perspective Character was probably one for me. That character in the movie, he's a very complex character who was only on screen for 20 minutes and we barely know his life. We but we know that a man of compassion, we know he's a complex individual.

01;07;01;16 - 01;07;21;08
Christopher Chester
He's a very gray area, gray area character. And I like when people explore the gray and characters and in television and movies, because it's a real reflection of real life. Typically, like why knows what he's doing is bad, but one also still sees the good in people.

01;07;22;12 - 01;07;42;14
Rob Lee
Yeah, I like, I like it for me as Mahershala. Yeah. And I definitely, I think your, your, your positions on each one have credence and I definitely 100% on it. But I think it's Mahershala me is part of this really strong run in 2016 he was in six movies.

01;07;43;24 - 01;07;45;14
Christopher Chester
The one man was killing it.

01;07;45;25 - 01;08;06;01
Rob Lee
And then, you know, you get you know him and Roxane. Roxane is 17 then Green Book. He gets best supporting actor again. And that and that movie has its problems. But you know, I think it got some weird hate more than it's just a bad movie, just a voiceover work for Into the Spider-Verse Alita Battle Angel. And it's like, Yo, you got Blade in this time as well.

01;08;06;01 - 01;08;16;20
Rob Lee
It's like you're the guy in this one for being a guy that was a rapper, you know, at one point. And I didn't know that. Yeah, he has two albums from 2006 and 2007.

01;08;16;27 - 01;08;19;18
Christopher Chester
Oh, my God. I'm going to do like a Mahershala Ali.

01;08;20;23 - 01;08;23;24
Rob Lee
He's a fellow, you know, he's a fellow Aquarius, too. So I got a, you know.

01;08;23;24 - 01;08;25;08
Speaker 1
Okay. Yes.

01;08;25;08 - 01;08;26;11
Christopher Chester
Welcome to the tribe.

01;08;26;11 - 01;08;28;18
Speaker 1
Let's go.

01;08;28;18 - 01;08;30;13
Rob Lee
So this is the last question I got for you.

01;08;31;04 - 01;08;31;16
Christopher Chester
Okay.

01;08;31;27 - 01;08;53;07
Rob Lee
What is the future of Kevin and Black? Because that's where we kind of indebtedness movie are. They is it like, you know, we kind of resolve what this is? Because in theory, the last time that we saw them was my man is getting arrested, you know what I mean? And, you know, then it's been ten years and my man is now, you know, he's using that trt.

01;08;53;07 - 01;08;53;16
Speaker 1
So, you.

01;08;53;16 - 01;08;55;17
Rob Lee
Know, what is it? You know what we got there?

01;08;56;06 - 01;09;24;04
Christopher Chester
I, I like the ending a lot because it shows that Kevin is sorry. Kevin has regret. You know, Kevin is probably had grief from how their relationship ended and it really does capture its closure. You know, I don't even know if it's so much about did they stay together versus were they able to heal wounds from each other and was there an acceptance of closure from that?

01;09;25;09 - 01;09;27;08
Rob Lee
Does he start trapping in Miami?

01;09;28;06 - 01;09;35;28
Christopher Chester
I know you're just going to start cooking like Kevin. I'll make the edibles in the back of the restaurant like now.

01;09;36;06 - 01;09;42;28
Rob Lee
That would be amazing. But like, I like how he told him, he's like, yeah, your only person has ever touched me and was like, Oh, just like, all right.

01;09;43;16 - 01;10;13;00
Christopher Chester
Like, yeah, that was like a very, like, intimate moment. I think it's also interesting because, you know, Kevin is the character was like really known Chiron at this intimate level. And so it's hard to say and I like that this movie doesn't have a sequel and it doesn't look to continue to explore this relationship. And I think shows the complexity of relationships, whether you are straight or gay or even like where you fall on the spectrum.

01;10;13;00 - 01;10;15;16
Christopher Chester
I think it shows that like love is complex.

01;10;16;09 - 01;10;20;06
Rob Lee
I mean, sunlight too has got sunlight. It's got a green lit. So as far as coming, coming soon.

01;10;20;19 - 01;10;21;05
Christopher Chester
After, you.

01;10;21;21 - 01;10;26;15
Rob Lee
Know, getting the amazing is just like you know I ditto know.

01;10;27;11 - 01;10;30;00
Speaker 1
That so it it is.

01;10;30;10 - 01;10;33;01
Rob Lee
You know one is alive because he's blade right but he.

01;10;33;12 - 01;10;38;27
Speaker 1
Mine because he's also a great example that is ridiculous. Oh that is ridiculous.

01;10;38;27 - 01;10;43;08
Christopher Chester
No, thank God they're more like Marvel continuity of like what's.

01;10;43;13 - 01;10;43;16
Rob Lee
The.

01;10;44;14 - 01;10;49;09
Christopher Chester
End credits are Kevin like opening up a shop at what, condo or something?

01;10;49;25 - 01;10;53;13
Rob Lee
He's like, you just hear his voice, like in the Eternals he touched out of.

01;10;53;13 - 01;10;54;21
Speaker 1
I was you. It was like his.

01;10;54;29 - 01;10;55;28
Rob Lee
His drug box.

01;10;56;22 - 01;10;57;11
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah.

01;10;57;15 - 01;11;04;13
Rob Lee
You put was ashes in here. We didn't dump him out in senior Cuba. We, we put them in here and now he's making up the next. I don't know. I can't decide.

01;11;05;00 - 01;11;06;12
Christopher Chester
It's like I'm looking for black.

01;11;07;25 - 01;11;08;11
Speaker 1
I want to tell.

01;11;08;11 - 01;11;10;11
Rob Lee
You about the Miami 305 initiative.

01;11;10;24 - 01;11;14;02
Christopher Chester
Oh, my guy that's chaotic. I love it.

01;11;14;10 - 01;11;16;23
Speaker 1
But that's.

01;11;16;23 - 01;11;17;10
Rob Lee
Really stupid.

01;11;17;10 - 01;11;17;19
Speaker 1
I know.

01;11;18;06 - 01;11;31;12
Rob Lee
So. So here's the last thing. Final verdict on your scale. On the scale, if you will, or what would you give this movie out? You know, what's your scale? Would you get this movie?

01;11;32;00 - 01;11;56;25
Christopher Chester
All right. You know, I'm going to give it a scale out of five. Out of five, I must say, for me, it's four and a half I think it's a pretty high rating. I think it's an important film. And they like black masculinity identity. I had to recommend films for people to watch, to just understand contacts without actually being spoken to.

01;11;57;03 - 01;12;28;15
Christopher Chester
Perfect for that. It's shot beautifully. It's shot without having too much emphasis on like CGI or like putting the budget or behind the camera and it really dives into a really thousands of trauma without being trauma porn, which I appreciate because sometimes black stories can fall in this area where like, are we shooting this to kind of speak on something?

01;12;28;15 - 01;12;36;16
Christopher Chester
Are we shooting to just kind of show the visuals that this is bad, which I think a lot of there's a lot of that that kind of goes on at the moment.

01;12;37;05 - 01;12;56;26
Rob Lee
We almost have that, you know, overdoing that sort of resilience thing that's there. And I'm on the same page. I agree with you. I think I think I have a pension in an appreciation for movies sort of feel like plays. And I think that there is a space that this could be adapted into a play, and I think that should probably happen.

01;12;58;07 - 01;13;09;01
Rob Lee
I Definitely is is probably about a 4 to 4.5. And I, like I said, I usually don't watch. It's rare that I watch movies twice, especially movies. They're about 2 hours. It's is a challenge for me.

01;13;09;01 - 01;13;10;10
Speaker 1
I'm looking for a few.

01;13;11;05 - 01;13;31;02
Rob Lee
I'm looking for how can I trim out the credits to not make this feel like a two hour movie as I credit? So about 5 to 7 minutes as I has done in the seventies and you're literally getting a two hour movie. But yeah, I think that that works. And it some of the some of that third part, that third act dialog is not good.

01;13;31;21 - 01;13;32;23
Rob Lee
I was like, this is.

01;13;33;06 - 01;13;33;09
Speaker 1
Two.

01;13;33;09 - 01;13;58;00
Rob Lee
People trying to reconnect on it and it's almost like I was waiting for someone to say Lit and I was like, You both are old. Let's not. I think the movie is good. The movie is good. And I kind of wanted that chefs, that chef's special, you know, kind of you know is is definitely I'm in the Cuban food yo make the beans beans what care he makes sure that the rice is on their own point you know, in that jail culinary degree.

01;13;58;00 - 01;13;58;15
Rob Lee
Let's do it.

01;13;58;23 - 01;14;15;00
Christopher Chester
I am. I am. I expected more from Kevin in the third act. You know, because we had been with Sharon for so long and it was like, oh, well, Kevin's back. Like, we're going to, like, really dove into this character. And then we don't really. Dom That deepens it like a little bit.

01;14;15;26 - 01;14;35;14
Rob Lee
Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. And you know, other than I'm a dad now and it's kind of like, you know, sort of that I got the things that I was told I wanted. That's what I kind of took out of his story. And and I didn't really want those things. I think they tried to give us a lot, but it's but at the end of the day, it's not.

01;14;35;14 - 01;14;50;29
Rob Lee
It's not his story is kind of what I'm taking from it. But I agree with you where, you know, we're ultimately to the sort of final boss of forgiveness. And it's just like, all right, we're going to have this dinner. I'm going to take my gold and drink some red wine out of like some plastic cups.

01;14;51;05 - 01;14;54;20
Speaker 1
Yeah, that's no way.

01;14;55;11 - 01;15;12;19
Rob Lee
Of Roger going yet. So that's pretty much it for the final folks listening. I want to again thank you for being on this podcast and chopping it up with me. And when I invite encourage you to tell people where the check you out to check out your work and all of that good stuff is not necessarily movie related, but I'm sure you have a movie comment here and there.

01;15;12;19 - 01;15;15;19
Rob Lee
So folks can check you out. So let the folks know where they can check you out.

01;15;16;02 - 01;15;38;19
Christopher Chester
Yeah. Rob, thank you for having me today. It's been great. Hope we can do this again soon. So I'm Christopher Chester. You can find me on Instagram at Christopher J. Chester. I'm also a designer and you can check me out on my website at Christopher J. Chester dot com. I'll do a quick little plug as well that I also run a monthly radio show with my best friend Mike.

01;15;38;22 - 01;15;57;20
Christopher Chester
You weren't called Employee of the Month over on Gutsy Radio. You can find all of our episodes on Mixcloud dot com. We talk about a variety of different topics or month to month and also share music, have a hybrid talk show slash music show. So again, that's where you can find me on the Internet.

01;15;58;25 - 01;16;18;28
Rob Lee
Thank you. And I'm probably truth in his art. Truth in his art. You know, it's a podcast. I do it arts and culture. Christopher and Michael have been on air, so it's fun and yeah, definitely check it out. Check us out next week or so. I don't know when these podcasts come out anymore. Check us out for the next episode of Let's Watch It Again, share, subscribe, all of that good stuff.

01;16;18;28 - 01;16;21;02
Rob Lee
And again, thank you.

01;16;21;02 - 01;16;25;19
Speaker 1
It seems so good to see you back again.

01;16;25;27 - 01;16;30;13
Speaker 2
How long has it been?

01;16;30;13 - 01;16;36;04
Speaker 3
It seems like, oh, my.