Moonlight (2016)

From blackwiki
Revision as of 09:34, 7 January 2021 by Al (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Moonlight Movie Poster

Moonlight is American Drama Movie who directed by Barry Jenkins. This movie released on October 21, 2016 in United States. It stars Trevante Rhodes as Black, André Holland as Kevin, Janelle Monáe as Teresa, Ashton Sanders as Chiron, Jharrel Jerome as Kevin age 16, Naomie Harris as Paula and Mahershala Ali as Juan.

This Academy Award-winning picture shows the grief and trauma of Black men through an entirely different lens than police brutality while also highlighting the Black LGBTQ community. Moonlight also received several nominations including Best Directing by Barry Jenkins, Best Actress in a supporting role by Naomie Harris and Cinematography by James Laxton. It was the first movie to win the top Oscar with an entirely African American cast and the first with a homosexual main character.[1]

Plot

Alex Hibbert (left) and Mahershala Ali in Moonlight (2016), directed by Barry Jenkins.

Three time periods, the film is divided into three chapters, "Little," "Chiron" and "Black," the three name used to refer to the same individual we follow from puberty to adulthood from childhood.

In the first act, Juan, a prosperous drug dealer, sees a young boy escaping a group of boys trying to beat him and follows the boy into an abandoned apartment where he has locked himself up for safety. The kid (Alex Hibbert) refuses to chat but allows Juan to purchase a meal for him. He is taken to their home by Juan and his girlfriend, Teresa, where the boy says that his name is Chiron and that he is named Little, but he declines to say where he lives until the next morning. He is returned by Juan to his mother, a crack cocaine user who is emotionally abusive to the boy. For Chiron, who does not know how to fit in with the other boys in the neighborhood, Juan and Teresa become an alternate family, while a classmate, Kevin, tries to teach him.

In the second act, the film jumps to Chiron as a teenager, coping with more serious abuse and sexual problems. These are the years when everyone claims to be sleeping around and a young man like Chiron, is struggling to find himself, especially now that all the appearance of a normal home life has vanished. He simply has nothing and to offer him comfort requires kindness from his friend Kevin (played at this age by Jharrel Jerome).One night on the beach, Chiron has a sexual encounter with Kevin (now played by Jharrel Jerome). Terrel (played by Patrick Decile) then manipulates Kevin into knocking down Chiron to kick and defeat by Terrel and his cohort. When Chiron returns to school, he enters the classroom and smashes a chair into Terrel. Chiron is stripped out of handcuffs.

In the third act, ten years have passed and finally, we meet Chiron as a young adult. His mother wants him to see her at the alcohol recovery center, and Kevin (André Howard), now a short-term chef and waiter at a dinner in Miami, comes to him on a phone call. Kevin makes Chiron the "chef's special" and asks Chiron about his life. Kevin reveals that he's got a son and went to jail. Chiron, as always, is pretty quiet. Later on Chiron confesses that Kevin was the first guy who ever touched him, and he's never even touched anyone else since then. The two men are carrying each other and we see young Chiron on a moonlit beach where Juan taught him to swim.

Pros

Kevin and Chiron on the beach

Besides received several award nomination, this movie also received some positive response. David Sims on on The Atlantic say that "Moonlight is humane movie"[2]It's not a "issue" film that's all about "race or sexuality; it's a human film, one that most of all tries to inspire empathy and introspection.

"it’s a nervous glance between two young men who know something is a little different about their relationship but society has given them no words to express it.[3]" said Brian Tallerico. He think that Jenkins knows he’s laid the groundwork, trusts his actors and allows the emotions of what’s unsaid to provide the dramatic thrust that “Moonlight” makes its greatest impact.

Reference