REVIEW: “Moonlight” stuns with visual storytelling
By Willa Moffatt,
BlueDevilHUB.com Editor-in-Chief–
“Moonlight” is, simply put, a stunning movie. But it is anything but simple. Though its main focus is on one young man named Chiron (played by Alex R. Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, and Trevante Rhodes, chronologically), filmmaker Barry Jenkins has managed to tell a story that reflects universal experiences of love, pain, betrayal, and struggling to find one’s identity.
Split into three parts, it begins with Chiron at age 9 living in Miami with his mother, who goes from casual drug user to an addict crippled by her dependency. He befriends the local drug dealer Juan (played by Mahershala Ali) who takes him under his wing and becomes a surrogate father.
Young Chiron and Juan have one of the most memorable exchanges of the film where Chiron begins to question his sexuality, and then discovers that Juan deals the same drugs that are deteriorating his mother.
Humble moments like the conversation above are characteristic of “Moonlight.” There is little dialogue, especially from its main character, but the film is stronger for it. Jenkins allows facial expressions and setting to tell the emotional journey of the young man.
The second part relays snippets of Chiron’s life as a teenager. When Chiron and a fellow student, Kevin (played as an adult by Andre Holland), meet on the Miami beach at night, they further tangle the web of Chiron’s feelings and this encounter has unintended consequences when they reenter their harsh reality.
Chiron’s physical appearance mimics his inner struggle as well. As a young boy he is humiliatingly nicknames “Little,” and retains a skinny figure in high school. When we meet Chiron in the third act, he has transformed into a bulked up gangster; he is like a huskier Juan. However, despite this outer change, he remains tormented on the inside by his sexuality and relationship with his mother.
The film is gentle and raw and jarring and beautiful. It is a journey worth taking.
I loved it. Go see it. Look for it at the Academy Awards–it’s going to win big.
