Moonlight

Moonlight can be seen as the polar opposite of other Oscar nominee Fences. Defiantly modern. Emotional and sensitive. Deftly handling its themes and motifs. And cinematic to a tee. Plus both were based on plays (Moonlight being based on the screenwriter’s play Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue). Like Kendrick Lamar’s 2016 album, To Pimp A Butterfly, this feels like a state of nation address but not in the way you would expect (both share a sampling of the same Boris Gardiner song as their opening). Moonlight is an emotional and powerful experience that becomes a universal story about feeling like an outsider.

We follow the journey of Chiron, an outcast African-American child struggling to grow up in a coming-of-age story set in Miami. The film is split into three sections as we see Chiron grow up as played by three different actors. We first meet Chiron as a child when he is widely known as “Little”. Little is quiet and solemn, struggling with his loneliness, his addict mother and making friends. He is found alone in an abandoned apartment by a drug dealer named Juan, who takes Little under his wing to teach him about the ways of the world. The second section deals with Chiron in high school, now besotted by hormones, unreleased rage and coming to the realisation that he is homosexual. This is probably the strongest section of the film as the emotions feel raw and all too real. The final section sees Chiron as a young man, now known as “Black”, who has become hardened and distant from the world. A chance call from an old school friend (who also shared an intimate moment with Chiron) brings him back to Miami to maybe face up to his wrought past and hidden emotions.

Moonlight stands out due to its visual style. Barry Jenkins and cinematographer James Laxton resist a photo-realistic, faux-documentary style in favour of a stylised, mellow, almost washed out blue palette, with some scenes intentionally out of focus to evoke memories and the passage of time. To any cinephile that can't accept digital filmmaking into their lives, I beg them to look at this film. This is the promise of digital filmmaking. The filmmakers eschew normal genre expectations – drug dealers and crack-head mothers are in the films but they never fall into stereotypes. Surprisingly, it is also free of a rap heavy soundtrack. The filmmakers are urging us to look past the cliches and our pre-conceptions about these characters. The cast are presented as flawed humans, struggling along with Chiron. Guns are in the film but they are never used in a violent way, only to suggest and imply the life style these characters are forced to lead. It’s a potentially hostile environment with little room for escape.

Of course the best element of the film is the decision to have three different actors play Chiron in the three segments. I wish an Oscar could be given to all three of these actors for building up and continuing a character arc that is sensitive, emotional and 100% absorbing. Alex Hubert perfectly captures the traumatised innocent, wide-eyed yet withdrawn and quiet. He delivers one of the most powerful moments in the film – when he finds out his new father figure is a drug dealer and that his mother is an addict. Ashton Saunders is gawky, gangly and outcast as teenage Chiron, who embodies the hormonal frustration and anger of any teenager. Finally, Trevante Rhodes plays Chiron, or “Black”, as a towering and hardened man who betrays elements of his deeply hidden emotions. These are multi-faceted performances that are given roughly equal screen time and allow us to completely understand and relate to Chiron’s experience. Many have compared the style to Linklater’s Boyhood, which is fair – whereas Boyhood was a massive accomplishment on a technical and practical level, keeping the same cast for 12 years, I would argue that Moonlight is more focused. That said, they do serve as nice companion pieces on the experience of growing up American.

The other players in the film are those most important in Chiron’s life. Juan, played by Mahershala Ali, tries to take “Little” under his wings, teaching him important life lessons and hard truths about the world. Ali’s performance is fatherly, eschewing normal expectations from this role to reveal a tenderness rarely seen in this genre figure. Similarly, Naomie Harris, as Chiron’s mother (who almost turned the script down due to the surface level cliché of the character) is a similarly flawed human being – she is also clearly fighting her inner demons but going about it in the wrong way. Her love for Chiron often manifests itself in the wrong way. This is another multi-layered performance that continues to reveal new depths throughout the chapters of the film, especially in the final one.

Moonlight is an unmissable film. The technique, acting and script all work together to build a beautiful portrait of a man struggling with his deeply hidden emotions and traumatic past. It urges us to look past stereotypes and search for true identity. Everyone has a story. And everyone is shaped by their story. Thoroughly modern and utterly compelling.

Rating: 10/10