Moonlight
Directed by: Barry Jenkins
Written by: Barry Jenkins - Based on the story by Tarell Alvin McCraney
Starring: Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, Trevante Rhodes, Naomie Harris, Mahershala Ali, Janelle Monáe, André Holland, Jharrel Jerome, Jaden Piner
Drama - 110 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl 26 Oct 2016
Written by: Barry Jenkins - Based on the story by Tarell Alvin McCraney
Starring: Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, Trevante Rhodes, Naomie Harris, Mahershala Ali, Janelle Monáe, André Holland, Jharrel Jerome, Jaden Piner
Drama - 110 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl 26 Oct 2016
Three chapters stitch together Moonlight. These segments chart a boy’s life from confusing childhood, through adolescence marred by conflict at home and at school, and capped by an adult shielding himself from his true identity. External forces mold Chiron including people judging and labelling who they think he is and the neighborhood itching to define him and his vector in life. Directed with the utmost subtlety by Barry Jenkins and starring three breakout actors portraying different versions of one person, Moonlight is a fascinating film full of whirling cameras, crushing pressure, and an even more daring vulnerability.
Jenkins wrote the screenplay based on an unproduced play by Tarell Alvin McCraney called, “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue”. The material is semi-autobiographical of McCraney’s coming of age in Miami’s Liberty City projects. Coincidentally, Jenkins grew up in the same neighborhood and even went to the same elementary and middle schools, but in different years. Identifying with the location and themes developed by McCraney, Jenkins makes Moonlight feel as personal as it could be.
Jenkins wrote the screenplay based on an unproduced play by Tarell Alvin McCraney called, “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue”. The material is semi-autobiographical of McCraney’s coming of age in Miami’s Liberty City projects. Coincidentally, Jenkins grew up in the same neighborhood and even went to the same elementary and middle schools, but in different years. Identifying with the location and themes developed by McCraney, Jenkins makes Moonlight feel as personal as it could be.
Moonlight’s first third follows Little (Alex Hibbert), a 10 year-old adapting to being chased after school for reasons unknown to him. Saved by drug dealer with a heart of gold, Juan (Mahershala Ali, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2), Little latches onto Juan setting him up as a surrogate father. Juan recognizes a boy in need but for murky reasons never explained, Juan opts to care for Little. He teaches Little to swim, offers heavy advice about you being the only person who can decide who you are going to be, and in perhaps the most spellbinding scene of the year, tells the truth to Little: he is a drug dealer, he sells drugs to Little’s mother, and the the word faggot is a word designed to make gay people feel bad. It’s one of the harshest and realest scenes I have ever seen.
Jumping ahead six years, Little is now Chiron (Ashton Sanders, Straight Outta Compton). Chiron still has a mother, Paula (Naomie Harris, Spectre), but he raises himself. Persecuted at school by wanna-be gangsters intent on punishing Chiron for his perceived sexuality and abused at home by a mother desperate to steal money from her kid to score her next fix, Chiron is under siege from all sides. Sometimes seeking refuge from Juan’s girlfriend, Teresa (Janelle Monáe, Rio 2), for a bed to sleep in and a bit of spare cash in his back pocket, Chiron’s mother screams at him reminding him who his real mother is. Reduced to a shell of a human being by crack cocaine, the audience has it’s own thoughts on Paula’s definition of motherhood.
Chiron’s childhood friend, Kevin (Jharrel Jerome), who we also see at three different stages of his life, provides a sympathetic ear for Chiron and in a beachfront scene of adolescent intimacy, I realized Moonlight may be the first time I have ever seen two African-American boys kiss on screen. I’ve seen a million boy and girl pairs kiss, two girls kiss, two white boys kiss, but never two black kids to my knowledge. I felt more fear than anything; if Chiron and Kevin get caught in their neck of the woods for behavior considered normal elsewhere, their very lives may be in danger.
Adding to the bewilderment and the feeling that threats can come from anywhere at any time, the camera work is in your face and impossible not to notice. Composers says you are not supposed to notice the music in film; otherwise, they are doing it wrong. Cinematographers, on the other hand, tend to show off every now and then and James Laxton makes some bold choices. Moonlight’s first scene shows Juan pull up to one of his corners to check to see how product is moving and if the atmosphere is normal. Laxton’s camera spins round and round the actors as if Juan’s head is on a swivel, always looking out for the unseen sneaking up from behind. Later on in a field where young Little and a group of boys are all tacking each other, the camera is in extreme close-up. I was screaming inside for Laxton to zoom out because I was tired of jostling almost up Little’s nose. Laxton achieved a few stellar shots including the beach scene, but sometimes he gets too carried away for his own good.
When we check in on Chiron later on in his early-30s, he is now called Black (Trevante Rhodes). The scenes are almost all at night and Black looks like he picked up where Juan left off. He cruises the streets checking on his corners, wears shiny grills clipped onto his teeth like all the rappers did back in the mid-2000s, and emits an aura of menace and grit as he jokes about women with his pushers. This is all armor though. The audience knows underneath Black’s physical shield hides Little’s frightened soul. A surprise call from Kevin (André Holland, Selma) jolts Black down memory lane to feelings he buried deep a long time ago. The phone call is a catalyst for a last shot well earned. I heard someone in the theater say Moonlight is a film only gay people and critics will love. Well, unfortunately, those are probably the only two groups who will see it unless it begins raking in awards. If it was released on 4,000 screens blockbuster style, I bet anyone with a soul and just a hint of sympathy will rave about it.
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