Moonlight | Film Review

Gamelkateinthecinema | Moonlight

Director: Barry Jenkins

Release: 2016
Writers: Screenplay: Barry Jenkins | Story: Tarell Alvin McCraney

Genre: Drama / Coming of Age

Rating: R some sexuality, drug use, brief violence, language throughout

Wow. It’s only March, and Moonlight is already one of my favourite films of 2017. This is a beautifully told and emotionally charged story of growth, that digs down under your skin and refuses to be forgotten.

Perhaps if Moonlight had been released 10, or even 5 years ago, it may have met with a different audience response. From Boris Gardiner’s opening song ‘every nigger is a star’ to the very last scene, Moonlight is an unapologetic inside look at life as a gay black kid growing up in Miami. Exploring three main stages of protagonist Chiron’s life, we are shown childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The film reinforces how far popular culture has come in terms of acceptance around LBGT issues, and played out in Moonlight, this portrayal is thoughtful and profound.

Director Barry Jenkins cleverly expresses the sensitive side of Africa-American culture, capturing the attention and sympathy of a wide audience, without over-glorifying or trivialising Chiron’s struggle. Jenkins shows us the people behind the labels, the back-stories behind the stereotypes. There are no good or bad choices in Chiron’s life, only what he can do to avoid more pain. A feeling most teens and young adults can relate to in great detail.  

Lines of good and evil are blurred when he unwittingly befriends his mother’s (Naomie Harris, amazing as usual) drug-dealer Juan (Mahershala Ali), and his girlfriend Teresa (Janelle Monae). Impressed with their lifestyle, and confused about his feelings for his friends, Chiron (Alex Hibbert) grows up under the wing of Juan. In act ii, Chiron (now Ashton Sanders) deals with the horrors of high school and takes part in one of this century’s most important onscreen kisses. Act iii balances the first two perfectly, with Chiron (now named Black, and played by Trevante Rhodes) following an impulse decision to visit an old friend, and exploring how the events of his past have directly impacted his adult life.

Despite the tendency to over-hype contemporary American films, and all the Black Oscar/White Oscar media messiness associated with Moonlight, this film holds its head high above all this and emerges as a piece of cinema that needs to be seen. Moonlight takes you by the shoulders and shakes you out of your blockbuster-induced coma. It makes you taker a deeper look at life and love, and the impact of your actions on others. 

There is no section of mainstream society who wouldn’t be touched, moved and affected by this beautiful film.

Rating: 8/10

All images taken from the official Moonlight Trailer 2016. Copyright to A24. 

I do not own the rights to these images. All text is written by me and is my own personal opinion.