Moonlight - Review
This review of Moonlight is spoiler-free!
The journey of life is always easy. For those of us living on a high moment, we need a reminder that there are those of us who aren't living in that same high and are struggling or have been struggling. For many people who feel lost, society isn't exactly going to show these people on its own that it's ok to be different and that you can live your life being who you want to be. Only within the last few years has acceptance of equality for LGBTQ+ people been widespread and there is still the harsh reality that there are many people who still refuse to accept that. Moonlight isn't just a great movie, it's an important movie with a purpose to show that there's a kindness inside each and every one of us that we can choose whether or not to express to those around us. Being the next film in my series of Best Picture winners, I'm ready to talk about just what makes this movie so incredible.
So, for this film, I decided I was going to do something a bit different when evaluating the film. Being that Moonlight is spread out into three distinct chapters focusing on critical moments in Chiron's life, I believe it's important to talk about each of them on their own. Starting off, we meet Chiron in his youth, faced with a mother who doesn't care about him and left in a world alone to learn about the world. Here he meets a drug dealer by the name of Juan (Mahershala Ali) and his partner Teresa (Janelle Monáe). For me, I think this may have been my favorite chapter in this man's life because of Juan. He sees something in Chiron, going by Little at this point in his life, and wants to help rescue him from the harsh world he has at home. Acting as a sort of father figure, and allowing his home to be a sort of sanctuary for Little who has true moments of joy. Mahershala's portrayal is incredible and emotional, some of the best work I've ever seen from him, and Alex Hibbert for me evoked the most real emotion I ever felt for Chiron in this first chapter.
Jumping forward in time, we meet Chiron as a teenager, actually going by that name at this point in time. Remember when you were a teenager? Life and good times were all focused on supposed instances of sleeping with others, and being a homosexual man, Chiron faces a lot of bullying. On a mission to find himself on his own, he has only one true friend in Kevin (Jharrel Jerome) who helps him. With Chiron's constant bullying by his fellow classmates, there's a lot of violence towards him in this section and multiple moments in which his life is challenged. Seeing that the only place that he feels safe is with Teresa (Juan is gone by this point), he spends multiple nights there. Jharrel Jerome plays Kevin very well, coming across with a friendly but cocky nature, but you can see he truly cares about Chiron. Along with this, Ashton Sanders does an incredible job carrying the weight his character had from his childhood into his teenage years and seeing the pain and struggle continue.
Finally, we meet Chiron as an adult. At this point in life, he goes by the name of Black (Trevante Rhodes), and he's fallen into a lifestyle eerily similar to that of his mentor Juan. This could be seen foreshadowed from earlier on in the film but it is rather striking seeing just how much suffering he's faced and how it's impacted his life choices. In this section, we see the consequences of what has happened and we are reintroduced to Kevin, now played by André Holland. The overarching story of Chiron's life comes to a subtle and quiet ending that made me satisfied but also left wondering just what could be happening next. I have to praise the chemistry between Holland and Rhodes as they carry the weight of this chapter on their shoulders and I felt the emotion between them as they faced each other after years apart.
Moonlight is a triumph in filmmaking because it manages to convincingly take one character on a journey through his life. Using different actors to portray the same character and carry the same feeling of sadness and loneliness through all of these pieces is incredible. In all of my time watching film, I haven't felt a connection with a character on the level that I have with Chiron. While I'm not remotely similar to him, I understand his suffering and battling with loneliness. It's impossible to explain just what makes Moonlight so great and magical to watch, but I truly believe this is one film anyone who watches movies needs to see to understand the greatest of this art form.
10/10
