Film Review & Analysis: Moonlight

How Moonlights transcends toxic masculinity and the suffocating conditions placed on black bodies.

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Moonlight was released in 2016 and was composed of a modest budget of $1.1 billion. Grossing 55 billion USD worldwide, it became the first all-black cast and LGBTQ-focused film to win the Best Picture Award.

Moonlight, though written and directed by Barry Jenkins, is based on Tarell Alvin-McCarney’s play, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. The film focuses on the growth of the weak and directionless Chiron, following him from childhood, to young adulthood. It is possible that Chiron mirrors the young lives of Jenkins and Alvin-McCarney, both of them being Floridians that grew up in Liberty City, Miami.

From the cinematography to the soundtrack, a tenderness flows from the film. The soft and natural lights that bounce off Chiron and Juan when the former is taught how to swim intertwines with the anticipating violin arpeggios and the heavenly hums. Reaching the stage of young adulthood, Trevante Rhodes and his portrayal of Chiron (known as Black) remains the most impactful as his gait, attitude and appearance reek of the archetypal African-American trapped in the hood. He pushes dope, he’s the chaser instead of the chased, and he bullies and intimidates his mother. His du-rag, gold grill and gold chain serve as armour, protecting him from the homophobia perpetrated by black men. So when Kevin (Andre Holland) tells Black to remove his grills, the rest of the film’s dialogues become a little more sincere. The male characters are allowed to be themselves, instead of this cookie-cutter concept of what a man should be. Jenkins fulfilled his obligations as a film-maker: to make us look within ourselves, sympathize, cry, and smile – all within an hour and fifty one minutes.

“for black boys”, one of the poems from African American poet Danez Smith’s collection [Insert] Boy, writes: ‘a cold black boy body is a prophecy fulfilled, you have always been a dying thing.’ However, Chiron nulls that prophecy and in the very last scene: Chiron, as a kid, is baptised in the ocean spray, looking towards the ocean before facing the camera – his solemn eyes latch onto us and only heeds one message – not all black boys have to be cold bodies.

Words By Ethan-Herlock Laird

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