Movie: Moonlight

Moonlight: not your typical coming of age film.  The story takes place in Miami.  We meet the protagonist as a young boy (Alex Hibbert), then as an adolescent (Ashton Sanders) and finally as an adult (Trevante Rhodes).  Each actor does a superb job of portraying an individual who fails to fit within his society’s given models.  During the course of this 110 minute film by Barry Jenkins (director and co-writer), we vicariously experience drug abuse, school violence and some of the difficult issues relating to sex and sexuality identity.  The film is based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tarell Alvin McCranney.  I understand the film runs true to the play.  The story opens with the protagonist as a young boy called “Little”.  He is being raised by Paula, a single, crack addicted mother played brilliantly by Naomie Harris.  Her crack dealer is Juan (Mahershala Ali), who happens to meet Little through other circumstances.  Juan takes a liking to Little and begins to take care of him like a son.  There is a very tender scene where Juan, who was born in Cuba, teaches Little how to swim.  There is another scene in which Juan reminisces about his own childhood and explains to Little the importance of defining himself and not letting others do it for him.  Then Juan, Paula and Little recognize the dots that connect them to each other.  I would like to have known more about Juan.  During the middle portion of this film, school violence is a focal point.  Our protagonist is called Chiron.  This segment includes a troubling sequence of events involving Chiron’s long time schoolmate, Kevin.  We see Kevin in all three segments of this film; Jaden Piner plays Kevin as a boy, Jharrel Jerome as an adolescent, and Andre Holland as an adult.  The adult segment shows Kevin placing a late night call to Black, an adult now living in Atlanta.  The three segments come together with a positive link between Kevin and Black  and a positive relationship between Black and his mother.  There is a violent undercurrent running through this film but scenes of actual violence are minimal and brief.  At the end, you will be pleased to have met Little/Chiron/Black and will be glad to have had the opportunity to travel with him on his painful and difficult road to adulthood.  I believe Moonlight will receive a few Oscar nominations.  Although it’s been a week since I saw this film, a number of the scenes continue to flash into my mind and linger.