The two movies I chose to watch were Lost in Translation and Moonlight.  Two vastly contrasting films.  Lost in Translation is a romantic comedy-drama released in 2003 starring Bob Harris and Scarlett Johanson playing the two main characters, Bill Murray and Charlotte. The two characters meet while visiting Tokyo, Bill Murray there to film a whiskey commercial, and Charlotte to accompany her husband, who works as a photographer, both struggling with their marriages for different reasons. Both of them, on their own and unfamiliar with Tokyo, find an understanding between each other, knowing they can relate to the other's situation, forming an unlikely bond.  Lost in Translation explores themes of loneliness, connection, disconnection, and isolation. Many of the shots reflect this, as, while watching, you can observe multiple scenes where a wide shot is used despite capturing the character existing in only a small area. You can also see wide shots where the camera captures the characters in the city and the massive crowd around them, making them feel lost in their environment.
The second movie I watched was Moonlight, and it was by far my favorite between these two. Moonlight is a coming-of-age drama film focusing on the life of a boy named Chiron. This film is separated into three acts, splitting up three separate periods in his life. Act One, titled Little, shows the boy in his childhood and sets up the rest of the story. Even as a child, Chiron dealt with a lot of bullying from his peers. In this act, he also meets Juan and his girlfriend Teresa, who quickly become father and mother figures in his life. In Act Two, titled Chiron, we see Chiron in his teenage years. He still deals with a lot of bullying and harassment that, at the end of this scene, leads to Chiron getting into a fight. He doesn't throw any punches himself, but the next day, he retaliates by attacking one of the people who'd hurt him the day before and for years before that as well, leading to Chiron getting sent to juvie. In Act Three: Black, Chiron lives in Georgia. He is shown to be quite different from the person he was before. He claimed at one point that, after the incident in Act Two and after getting sent to juvie, he had to "build himself from the ground up." He didn't change entirely, though, and this is noticed especially when he visits Kevin, his childhood friend, after nearly ten years. Previously, in this act, Chiron was not shown smiling often or shown happy, not around or for anyone else aside from when he traveled to visit Kevin, clearly showing the strength of their bond. Â
The scene that I found most impactful was the scene between Chiron and his mother in Act Two after he returns from the beach with Kevin. He finds his mother asleep on the couch and places a blanket over her. To this, she wakes up and holds his face, saying, "You don't love me no moreâŚ" and then, "You're my only. I'm your only." This scene switches from the wider shots used on Chiron's way back home to close-ups, emphasizing the expressions of himself and his mother.
Visually, there's nothing extreme, nothing making it incredibly unique. However, this conversation and his mother's words give so much context to their relationship. In this scene, we see a medium close-up shot of Chiron when his mom reaches out to cup his face. He tries to lean away, but she insists he comes closer. In act three, she's shown calling him multiple times, begging him to visit. Throughout the movie, she repeatedly says how much she loves Chiron despite her never showing it or stepping up to be a better mother figure in his life. I think she believes that she loves him, but after I watched that scene, I knew that her love for Chiron did not come from genuinely loving the person he was but because he was the only person who remained in her life. He was the only person she could hold on to and the only person she could force to stay in her life. By saying to Chiron, "I'm your only," (a statement not strictly true as he had found and been taken in by Teresa, who acted as a genuine and caring mother figure for him, though not related by blood) this revealed his mother's desperation for someone in her life. This was a very isolating phrase to say and showed her need to convince herself and her son that he only had his mother to support him in life as she truly only had him.
Overall, Moonlight was such a good movie that I am so glad to have watched. I liked the visuals and the use of blues and cool tones that seemed to tie back to the story Juan told Chiron in Act One about the old woman who called Juan "Blue" when he was a kid, running under the moonlight. Blue is also a color that can be associated with vulnerability and even represent identity and introspective journeys, which work very well with the topics the film addresses as Chiron ages. That was something about this film I really liked. How it followed Chiron throughout the different parts of his life, bringing the viewers closer to his character. This movie was so well done and truly unforgettable.