no. Moonlight is diverse; La La Land is not.
you cannot compare an all white cast (plus one black man, John Legend, as the character selling out/diluting jazz–a musical form/style/culture innovated by black people–with pop music influences so Ryan Gosling’s character can clutch his pearls) in a Hollywood movie nominated for an Academy Award to a film with an all black cast nominated for the same award. you just can’t. films with predominately/entirely white casts have historically dominated the Oscars; the fact that three excellent black-focused and black-led films (Moonlight, Fences, and Hidden Figures) were nominated and took home awards IN THE SAME YEAR is of huge significance.
not only that, but don’t overlook that Moonlight features a gay black man, a bisexual black man, and an Afro-Cuban man as characters in leading roles. (Mahershali Ali is also Muslim–he’s the first Muslim actor to win an Academy Award, ever.) also, as a film set in Liberty City/Miami, many of the characters are also of Caribbean descent. identity is intersectional: Moonlight told a story about a gay, poor, black boy dealing with toxic masculinity, the crack epidemic, and homophobia that ended hopefully and happily; La La Land was yet another masturbatory, white savior-y, trite film about white people in Hollywood.
telling compassionate, nuanced, nourishing, and intimate black stories or stories about black people in a white-dominated field diversifies the box office and award shows alike, and–MOST IMPORTANTLY–gives tons of people without representation a mirror to look into.
Moonlight was incredibly more “diverse” than La La Land. there’s no comparison.
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