Saw
Moonlight over the weekend and was pleasantly surprised.
I was expecting something overwrought but instead got something quite subtle and impressionistic.
I never felt like I was being bludgeoned with a message. This could have been a ham-fisted and/or stoic cri de coeur that straddled not one both two minority stories, but instead kept it personal and focused on the main character's story.
I'm a big Wong Kar-Wai fan, and his influence is everywhere here, from the music to the photography. I'd almost go so far as to say it's a Wong Kar-Wai film via Barry Jenkins about lonely black people in America, instead of lonely Chinese people in Hong Kong/Shanghai.
My one complaint would be that:
Spoiler
The final act perhaps takes the understatement a little too far. The first two acts set it up for a big emotional payoff, but it never arrives.
But even this I think is possibly to Jenkins' credit, as he was obviously at pains to avoid cheapening the story by extracting undeserved tears, and to take it to its logical conclusion.
It would definitely be in my top 5 for 2016 (but not going by UK release dates).