The obvious comparison is to Moonlight, and many of the same elements were there. Moody atmospheric music, slow camera pans, beautiful photography, credible and moving acting. Also, slow and plotless – but that is just fine for me.
This was a deceptively simple love story, going back in forth over time, but always understandable.
Some of the scenes were simple, but really amazing: her standing in the street as banners flap overhead, he puzzling over an unfinished block of wood sculpture as smoke swirls around his head.
I’m not sure it was necessary to have the several slide show sections with black and white photos of racial oppression – it wasn’t really needed, and seemed to break the mood. Every thing about racism was summed up in the staring contest between Fonny and the cop outside the small grocery store.