Moonlight

Year: 2016
Genre: Drama
Directed: Barry Jenkins
Stars: Naomie Harris, Trevante Rhodes, Andre Holland, Mahershala Ali, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Janelle Monae, Alex R. Hibbert, Jaden Piner, Patrick Decile, Herveline Moncion
Production: A24

The first thing that really strikes you about Moonlight is it's all so painfully personal. Perhaps it's the way our earthy, understated and un-glamorous characters are portrayed. Perhaps it's the work of director Barry Jenkins who thrusts us into the story with expressionistic tones and flourishes. Perhaps it's the way our protagonist's near catatonic state forces us to truly drink in his surroundings. I cannot attest if those who have never been to southern Florida will feel the same way, but for me I could actually smell the lightly perfumed ocean breeze and actually felt the sticky humidity that permeated every frame of this film. I felt it all.

Moonlight is equally divided into three distinct episodes though given it's intimacy they might as well be called movements. The first, entitled "Little" concerns the tortured existence of a 9-year-old boy (Hibbert) living in a rough neighborhood in Miami, Florida. He's bullied by his peers and emotionally abused by his mother Paula (Harris) who throughout the film slowly sinks into ruin with the help of crack cocaine. It is at this point in his life Little is introduced to Liberty City's preeminent drug dealer Juan (Ali) whom he first asks a defining question, "am I a f****t?"

"At some point you've got to decide for yourself who you gonna be. And let nobody make that decision." - Juan's words sit in the air throughout each movement like a cloud of mosquitoes over dense swamp. As time wears on Little becomes the invisible Chiron (Sanders) then the hard, drug-dealing Black (Rhodes), whose identity and sexual orientation is constantly being defined by the world around him. He speaks very little, choosing instead to silently judge as his mother morphs into a junkie and quietly rages as bullies abuse him. Eventually, after years of turmoil and paths taken in anger, Black finds his defining moments, pursuing and being pursued by schoolmate Kevin (Piner, Jerome and Holland).

There is so much to love about Moonlight including the way in which Barry Jenkins lovingly approaches both his themes and his subjects. Through effective use of color and the ever present sheen of the easterly sun and moon, the film glistens with entrancing beauty. There are echos of Terrence Malick and Lynne Ramsay in Moonlight with every extreme closeup a provocation to feel and absorb.

Each of our three actors does a tremendous job playing our protagonist with the same raw grace that defines and serves the visual mis en scene of the film. In-between each movement there is a sense that time has past. Things have happened but it is on the audience to infer what, through what is said, and more importantly by what is not. Moments of deep contemplation are not just airless voids but rather miniature mysteries all struggling to answer the central question; who is Chiron?

It is at this point the narrative stumbles slightly under the weight of its own socio-economic and political messaging. There are times when Chiron, with his 30-yard stare and ramshackle poverty, is impressed upon to be an empty vessel. The assumed hope is so his tale can be more superficially ubiquitous to the black, gay experience which by this point has only been calcified in film by Pariah (2011). But while Moonlight's larger social themes are enough to label it required viewing, one can't help but think its gambit for universality is a lost opportunity to make the film truly life-changing.

Pariah (2011)

Still for every edge to appeal to all, there are half a dozen parts to the story that are glowingly and lovingly singular. Late in the film there is a reunion between Chiron and Kevin whose slow emotional simmer resembles a delicate dance laden with machismo and sweetness. Additionally the customs, attitudes and unique verbal drawl are enough to settle the film's audience into a certain place in time.

Moonlight is ultimately a sad but life-affirming film that's not only an important watch but a darn good one. There is a paralyzing, fascinating, beautiful truth to this film. One in which every audience member regardless of race or sexual orientation can walk out of the theater aware of.

Final Grade: B+