Review – Moonlight

Moonlight is one of the most important movies of 2016.  It looks at a part of life most people know nothing about – homosexuality in the African American community- and looks at in great depth, with excellent filmmaking and great performances.

However, I didn’t love it.

This is nowhere near a bad movie.  In fact, two-thirds of the movie are absolutely brilliant, and some of the toughest, most emotional cinema I’ve seen all year.  But, the other third really missed it for me.  It may hit it for others, but for me personally, it just didn’t tie together the way I hoped it would.

Moonlight is the story of a young black man named Chiron trying to find his place in life while living in a tough neighborhood in Miami.  The movie is broken up into three parts.  The first part is titled ‘Little’, where we get a look at Chiron (Alex R. Hibbert) as a child.  We find that he’s an introverted, bullied kid who’s mother (Naomi Harris) is addicted to drugs.  When running away from bullies, Chiron is found by a local drug dealer named Juan (Mahershala Ali), who takes Chiron under his wing and become a father-like figure to him.  The second act is titled ‘Chiron’, where we meet up with Chiron (Ashton Sanders) when he is in high school.  He is more confused than ever and gets picked on more and more and starts to have feelings for his friend Kevin (Jharrel Jerome), yet has no idea what to do with those feelings.  The final act is ‘Black’, where we see Chiron (Trevante Rhodes) has moved to Georgia and is now a drug dealer.  He takes a trip back home to visit his sick mother and to revisit with Kevin (Andre Holland) and emotions begin to run.

The first two acts are spectacular.  Writer/director Barry Jenkins does a great job of bringing us into Chiron’s world from the very first scene and it is a series of sucker punches to the gut.  We feel the horrifying pain as the young Chiron asks Juan, “What’s a faggot?” after his mother called him one.  We cringe as the kids in school make fun of his clothes and his mother.  And our hearts break when Chiron can no longer keep his emotions on the inside.  This is as good as cinema gets in 2016, thanks in large part to Jenkins skilled and beautiful work behind the camera and his realistic approach to the material.

However, the third act is where the movie misses the mark for me.  This act focuses mainly on Chiron meeting up with Kevin and tying up any loose questions and feelings they had for one another growing up.  After two very powerful, very emotional acts, this one felt too breezy.  It was a nice way to end the movie, and really tied the themes together, but it just didn’t do it for me emotionally, which is a shame.

The performances in the movie are uniformly great.  All the actors who portray Chiron are new to the scene and they are all able to convey Chiron’s struggles brilliantly, particularly Ashton Sanders, who’s performance is tragic and authentic.  Naomi Harris is unrecognizable Chiron’s drug addicted, despicable mother.  She has a moving scene in the third act that should guide her to some awards love.  And Mahershala Ali gives one of the best performances from any actor in 2016 as the drug dealing Juan.  Though only in the first act, he gives a heartwarming, subdued performance as the father figure to the young Chiron.  He is the only one who cares about Chiron, and there is a great juxtaposition of character, as he is a great person for what he is doing for Chiron, yet is one of the reasons why Chiron’s mother is the way she is.  The scene where Juan has to answer young Chiron’s question about the word ‘faggot’ is one of control, pain, and patience.  I’ve loved Ali since I first saw him on House of Cards (2013-2016), but this is the best thing he has ever done.

Everyone needs to see Moonlight.  This is well made, expertly acted drama about a subject not many people know about.  The only thing stopping this movie from being a bonafide masterpiece is the third act, and that may just be personal thing for me or something that just didn’t hit me that day.  Either way, do yourself a service and see this movie.

MY RATING – 3/4

Did you see Moonlight?  What did you think?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, or on Facebook and YouTube by searching Kevflix.