Moonlight (2016)

As I continue through the list of Oscar nominees, the film Moonlight, Directed by Barry Jenkins, caught my eye. I liked the look of the poster, the colours caught my eye. I had not watched the trailer for this film because I like to go in without marketing mind games playing with my perception – good and bad. I knew that Mahershala Ali was in it because of his Oscar nomination for best supporting actor this year, and I like how Ali acts. Also, I saw a clip of this film when Ali was on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah. I guessed that it would be a Bildungsroman from the poster and a couple of synopses I saw. I was excited for the film’s visuals because of the way the poster looked, I really hoped that it wouldn’t disappoint me. Anyway, that is what I knew beforehand, and then I jumped into the film.

If I had to describe this film in a single word, I would say ‘broad’ because of its ability to cover such a wide variety of subjects. Barry Jenkins‘ film managed to touch on puberty, sexuality, parenthood, childhood, bullying, crime, mentorship, loss, drugs, growth and relationships. Obviously, some, or most, of those have a link which would mean they would share any film, but despite that, it was impressive how real each of those felt. It was damn naturalistic. This was definitely helped by the great acting by almost the whole cast, but I think that what most helped with that feeling of realism was the cinematography. The camera seemed to be always moving, floating around the scene we were watching. The frame would soar between characters and spin back around to show either the entire tableau or turn into a POV shot. In theory, I would have thought that this method of cinematography would fail at making a film feel natural. However, it actually does quite the opposite. It makes us feel like a character within the story and it worked so well at helping me slip into the story, which in itself was excellent. With all of these ideas running through the film, it could have been that the film became confused in its message or direction, but I think that, due to its wide range of themes, the film became more like real life. In our lives, we do not just face the one problem, say, for example, our mother’s drug habit, but rather we face that issue, as well as bullying, friendship, sexuality and more. Through these methods, the director made a fantastic way to emulate a relatable story for his audience. It was also the editing that built on the realism. The shots were excellent on their own but they also had to be on screen for the right amount of time. The usual linger on screen to show Chiron’s reaction was excellent, but my favourite moment of editing in the film came with when we first see teenage Chiron interact with his mother, Paula(Naomie Harris). It is a point of view shot that Harris says a line of her dialogue then holds on that take while another line of her dialogue plays over it. It is a very surreal moment but also locks us tightly into Chiron’s emotions and was a great way to catch us up and let us settle back into his character.

Now I want to talk about Mahershala Ali and his character for a bit. I was excited for his performance in this film because he had been nominated as best actor in a supporting role. I was expecting the great things that we usually get from Ali, however, I was disappointed. I was not let down because Ali acted poorly. He was absolutely perfect for the role and how he portrayed it. I was just initially saddened because he left after the first act. Now, what I was expecting was a mentor-mentee relationship to flourish throughout the story, as per what was set up in the first act. Instead Ali’s character, Juan was killed off – and not even on screen! However, upon further thought, I liked the decision because again it made the world I was watching feel real. In real life, people you expect to be around forever are suddenly gone. It was a great choice by the filmmakers. It was also not overplayed, as a life changing event that happened between chapters of Chiron’s life. This could have been because the character already had enough to deal with, or it could have been because that is how the character really would have reacted(I’m more swayed towards the latter). Whichever is the reason, I think that if they had kept Juan with Chiron, the story would have become a cliche, Karate Kid style film and lead to a predictable, unbelievable conclusion. What I am trying to say is that the writers(Screenplay by Barry Jenkins, Story by Tarrell Alvin McCraney) mixed up the formulae by removing what could have been a predictable component, and I admire that. Without Juan, Chiron had to face his large quantity of problems on his own and maybe led him down a darker path than he might have, had he had his mentor.

Throughout this review, I have spoken about how real the film felt, and I am standing by that comment along with its explanation. However, there were aspects that made me realise that I wasn’t in the film. There were only a couple and they are minor, but they are worth talking about. The first is that, because throughout the first act, I enjoyed how the film was made, I really looked forward to how they were going to show the change of age. I hoped for some clever transition between boy to teen. Unfortunately, I didn’t get anything of the sort, all it was a track around a corner to reveal an older Chiron. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the title cards that said “i. little”, “ii. Chiron” and “iii. Black”, but I did want something more visually appealing from such a gorgeous film. Again, this is minor and hardly worth complaining about. Another minor complaint is that of the character Kevin, played by Jaden Piner, Jharrel Jerome and André Holland, at different ages. In the first and most of the second acts, I liked the character. He was a support for Chiron that he clearly desperately needed. They had a great moment on the beach together at the midpoint, and I thought I understood the character fully. However, two scenes over, teenage Kevin is convinced by Terrel, played by Patrick Decile, to beat down Chiron. I feel like there wasn’t enough motivation for Kevin to do that to Chiron. Terrel reminded Kevin of a game they played as children and suddenly Kevin was ready to fight anyone. Perhaps if I saw Terrel as more threatening, or had more of a friendship with Kevin before the beat down, then maybe I would have believed that action. Also, side point, I saw too big an age difference in the oldest actors of Chiron(Trevante Rhodes) and Kevin(André Holland). To me, Holland looked too old compared to his classmate, but this is even more minor than the other complaints so it can be dismissed.

Overall, I loved this film. I haven’t nearly spoken enough about the visuals and how damn striking they are, with its bright almost neon colours outlining our characters just to make them shine. It also wasn’t done in a way to seem cartoonish as Zack Snyder has done in the past. It was excellent and makes for some really lasting images. I was satisfied from the excitement I got from the poster. The minor complaints I had are barely worth it compared to how well the rest of the film was put together. I had to find something wrong with it, and I do not think it is a perfect film, but it is an amazing watch and I would recommend it to anyone. This film is well worth the multiple nominations it has recieved. From this experience, I have learned to not tunnelvision when it comes to scope of a film because a wide range of themes are possible with the correct balance.