Moonlight is being heralded by culture critics as one of the most socially progressive movies of the year. The indie flick tells a story often overlooked by Hollywood, a coming-of-age tale of an impoverished gay black man.
But that didn’t sit right with one film critic, Camilla Long, from The Sunday Times, who felt the film was problematic for appealing to a “non-black, non-gay, non-working class, chin-stroking, self-regarding, turbo smug audience.” And if you disagree with her, you’re a dirty mansplainer.
Long wrote an excoriating review of the film which she thought, as a white woman, would not appeal to gay or black people. She was called out on Twitter by a gay white male author, Owen Jones, who thought the film was “amazing.”
“But you are white, non working class, and turbo smug, Owen,” Long replied.
The film was the brainchild of a gay black man, directed by an African-American,” Jones said. “But no, you know better of course Camilla.”
“Thanks for mansplaining the team behind it, Owen!” Long wrote. “I had no idea who created it.”
Yikes!
Long then doubled down, saying the film will only be watched by white audiences to fill the pockets of white producers. Curiously a black gay man called out Long, she did not reply to his comments.
“I loved Moonlight. I’m black, gay and working class and had no idea who you were before your racist review,” Dean Atta wrote. “You know nothing of what Moonlight means to black gay men. It’s not for you to question its relevance to us.”
Did Atta just mansplain to Long what it’s like being a gay black man? How dare he!
Read the whole thread here if you want to lose faith in humanity.