This is a terrible movie. The one word to describe this movie is boring. There is no plot. No character development. Camera work and direction are like something you would expect from a film student's class project. I still don't know why this movie was titled "Monnlight." Mahershala Ali brought some life to this film as he does with all the projects he's in but somehow he disappears in the middle of the movie without any explanation. He wasn't bad considering the corny dialog he was forced to say.

According to IMDb this is Barry Jenkins' first direction and he only has 8 writing credits and this lack of experience shows in the film. It wasn't clear what city this was in and in the first third of the movie the main character refused to even talk making the dialog so awkward I almost quit watching.

Many of the scenes are very long single shots that were about as interesting as watching a spider crawl up a wall. In one pivotal scene our main character is about to do something and the camera has a POV shot of him walking through door after door after door after door, so many I lost count. The only thing that went through my mind was having all these doors shut in a building full of people is probably a fire hazard.

I never gave a thumbs down (5 stars or less) to an Academy Award winner for best picture until now and I've seen them all from 1960-present and most from 1930-1960. I'm giving this 2 stars instead of 1 in deference to the Academy of Motion Pictures.