Moonlight (2016)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Moonlight (2016) – B. Jenkins

To be young, black, poor, and gay is a serious predicament in the USA.  Barry Jenkins’ film shows, in three acts with three actors, one man’s development, growing from a bullied young boy to an awkward uncertain youth, to a strong and silent man.  His crack-addicted mother (Naomie Harris) casts a huge shadow over everything, adding more difficulties, although for the context (Liberty City, Miami), this may reflect some sad sort of normal.  Even his caring and altruistic self-appointed mentor (played charismatically by Mahershala Ali) is also a drug-dealer.  So, although alienation is the order of the day, real human intervention has lasting effects; sensitive and caring moments, sensitively portrayed, help Little/Chiron/Black to navigate the troubled world, perhaps like beacons of light in the darkness.  The film itself looks beautiful (with black skin looking blue in the moonlight, a poetic phrase that is the source of the title) and there are numerous arthouse moves that reveal the film’s goals to be more aesthetic than your typical narrative feature.  Yes, there are autobiographical notes here for Jenkins (extending also from Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play) but this is not your usual Oscar-winning biopic – it is something deeper, more personal, touching and affecting, human and heartbreaking.