Moonlight

Barry Jenkins’s adaptation of Tarrell Alvin McCraney’s play traces the life of Chiron from childhood to adulthood. As a child in Liberty City, Miami, Chiron (Alex Hibbert), nicknamed “Little,” is mentored and provided for by drug dealer Juan (Mahershala Ali) and Juan’s girlfriend Teresa (Janelle Monae) when his drug-addicted mother Paula (Naomie Harris) isn’t up to the task. As a teenager, Chiron (Ashton Sanders) is shaken down by Paula for the money that Teresa provides him and frequently bullied by Terrel (Patrick Decille) all while developing feelings for his best friend Kevin (Jharrel Jerome). As an adult, Chiron (Trevante Rhodes), now nicknamed Black, is a drug dealer living in Atlanta who has a strained relationship with a now-recovering Paula and faces an awkward reunion with Kevin (Andre Holland), now a chef with a young son.

Too often, “message movies” turn into bloated spectacles that are too enamored of the righteousness of their thematic concerns to bother telling an engaging story. Moonlight, however, is a welcome departure from that trend: it gets its ideas across effectively through well-developed characters without being self-aggrandizing or contemptuous of its audience. Jenkins’s direction lends the film a naturalistic feel, and his lean, uncluttered script makes what little is said resonate more. From Little confronting Juan about Paula’s drug use to Terrel instigating a cruel hazing ritual with tragic results, there are plenty of poignant, raw, and powerful moments, yet thanks to the measured performances of the talented cast, Moonlight almost never feels like melodrama. Like a bleaker counterpart to Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, Moonlight is a harrowing snapshot of life away from both the middle-class suburbs and the familiar-to-the-point-of-cliché hoods of Los Angeles.

If there is a critique to be made here, it is that Moonlight is almost too economical for its own good. The time skips between stages of Chiron’s life make sense narratively, but they also leave the intervening years (and the potential therein) unexplored. That Ali won a supporting actor Oscar despite Juan’s presence in only the first act says a lot about how much more mileage Jenkins could have gotten out of these characters.

Moving without being maudlin and fluid to a fault, Moonlight may lack the grandeur of previous Best Picture Oscar winners, but it is every bit a worthwhile selection.

8.75/10