Moonlight
With eight Academy Award nominations, including "Best Motion Picture of the Year" and "Best Achievement in Directing," "Moonlight" is surely one of the most-anticipated films this year. Starring Trevante Rhodes, Andre Holland, Janelle Monae and Ashton Sanders, the film was directed by Barry Jenkins. "Moonlight" premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, and so far has won more than 100 awards at film festivals around the world. The film follows Chiron, an African-American boy, throughout his young adolescence, mid-teen and young-adult years. During his childhood years, Chiron lives with his single, crack-addict mother Paula in a crime-ridden neighborhood in Miami. Chiron is a shy, withdrawn child largely due to his mother. As a result, he is bullied and becomes an outsider in his small community. Besides his Cuban-American friend Kevin, Chiron is given what little guidance he has in life from a neighborhood drug dealer named Juan, who can see that he is neglected, and Juan's caring girlfriend Teresa, whose home acts as a sanctuary away from the bullies and away from Paula's abuse. With this childhood as a foundation, Chiron seems to have a predetermined path in life, one that will only be magnified over time.
Split
Starring James McAvoy, Betty Buckley, Anna Taylor Joy and Jessica Sula, M. Night Shyamalan's latest feature film "Split" offers a sneak peek into a troubled mind. Shyamalan, who is known for "Sixth Sense," "Immortal" and "Signs," has focused on a man who has a split personality for this film. Kevin has 23 different and confirmed personalities living in his mind waiting to surface. However, apart from those 23 personalities, he has another one, which has been suppressed for a very long time and is waiting to come out. Dennis, one of the personalities who was a victim of childhood abuse, kidnaps three teenagers and locks them in a basement. Throughout the film, the girls try to figure out the characteristics of each of Kevin's personalities in order to come up with an escape plan. As the walls in Kevin's mind begin to crumble, the girls try to stay alive before Kevin becomes violent.
