Drawn in by ‘Moonlight’
BARRY Jenkins’s Moonlight pulls you into its protagonist’s world from the start and transfixes throughout as it observes his roughly two-decade path to find a definitive answer to the question, “Who am I?” The film also brings infinite nuance and laser-like specificity to its portrait of African-American gay male experience, which resonates powerfully in the era of Black Lives Matter.
Moonlight looks set to draw attention to its gifted writer-director, along with its fine cast, notably former athlete Trevante Rhodes in an indelible break-out performance. It’s also another feather in the cap for Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment.
The story was originally conceived as a short play called In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, by Tarell Alvin McCraney. Jenkins and McCraney have similar Miami backgrounds, making this an intensely personal film about a bullied kid growing up in the poor Liberty City milieu at the height of the 1980s crack epidemic.
There’s a subtle comment on the codes of black masculinity embedded in the director’s choice not to introduce his main character first, instead starting with the man who will become a protector and role model for him. A refreshing departure from the usual template for such characters, Juan (Mahershala Ali) is a Cuban-born drug dealer who runs a tight local crew.
The drama is divided into three chapters unfolding during formative times of the central figure’s life.
All the clichés of the coming-of-age movie have been peeled away, leaving something quite startling in its emotional directness. It’s the sensitivity and understated rawness of the three remarkable actors playing Chiron that make the film so emotionally satisfying.
Moonlight will strike plangent chords for anyone who has struggled with identity, or to find connections in a lonely world. It announces Jenkins as an important new voice.