Review: Moonlight

Happy Black History Month, Anna Cao discusses one of her favourite black films, Moonlight.

Moonlight is a film directed by Barry Jenkins, based on Tarell Alvin McCraney's unpublished semi-autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue.

What drove me to this film is that I must admit I was attracted by its name, as it seems so elegant and delicate. After watching this film, I think it is a masterpiece.

The biggest argument in this film is growth. The film is structured into three acts, a boy, a teenager in school, and a full-grown adult. Chiron, who is an African-American queer man from a poor single-parent family, with a drug-addicted mother. As a child, he was subjected to schoolyard bullying because he didn't fit in with early American culture. Even Kelvin, who is someone he loved, is forced to bully him.

He meets a neighbourhood drug dealer named Juan, who can see that he is neglected, and Juan's caring girlfriend Teresa, whose home acts as a sanctuary away from the bullies and away from Paula's abuse. Their care and love let Chiron rethink who he is and what he actually wants to do.

Chiron’s inner world has deteriorated, it has been invaded and altered by his surroundings, but he eventually learns something from the genuine care and love of those around him. At the end of the film, he decides to be the real Chiron and accepts his true identity.

What I really love about this film is that it has a specific storytelling beat of how a black man grows up in a harsh and unfriendly environment, discovering things that are abnormal in his living environment, and he has to appreciate that side of him. He has to accept the real him, accepting his sexuality, his everything, instead of masking himself to be a stereotypical man.

At the end of the scene is the little Chiron looking back from the ocean under the moonlight, that stare might ask the audience "have we fully accepted who we are?"

Even though I’m not close to this character, it still reminds me to love myself and to see my beauty, everyone deserves love. Let me discover the meaning of life. I would rate this film ten out of ten, and highly recommend everyone to watch it!

Edited by Anna Cao