MOONLIGHT: THE FILM WE DIDN’T KNOW WE NEEDED

Moonlight is a 2016 American Coming-of-Age Indie Drama written and directed by Barry Jenkins, based on Tarell Alvin McCraney's unpublished semi-autobiographical play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue”. The film stars Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris, and Mahershala Ali.

The film shows us the life of Chiron (The Main Character) presented in three stages (his childhood, adolescence, and early adult life), and explores the difficulties he faces in dealing with his sexuality and identity, including the physical and emotional abuse he suffers while growing up in Miami.

Moonlight premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2016, and was released by A24 in the United States on October 21 of the same year, receiving critical acclaim while grossing over $65 million worldwide off of a budget of only $4 million (unconfirmed). The film currently has an impressive 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an Audience Score of 79%. It also has a Metascore of 99 (based on 53 critic reviews) on Metacritic, with a User Score of 7.1, and a 7.4/10 on IMDB (based on almost 320,000 reviews).

Moonlight was a film that a lot of people in the African-American community were uncomfortable with when it was first released. I remember having several discussions with people (from my community) about the subject matter of the film, and being told just how much they didn’t care for the films depiction of black male sexuality, citing that the film felt like an attack on black men. I didn’t see it that way. What I saw was a film that finally addressed some of the issues that black men have always had trying to exist in their own skin, surrounded by people who were unwilling to allow for anything other than the fixed presentation of what black boyhood and manhood has always had to look like.

Barry Jenkins executed the Three Act Structure (popularized by Syd Field) perfectly and the dialogue felt organic throughout, though I do think there were some opportunities to give the film a little more grit. Barry’s choice of opening image was also an interesting choice given the film’s true focus.

But despite the very few minor notes I have for this film, Moonlight has been heralded as one of the best films of the 21st century, receiving extremely high praise for Jenkins’ screenplay and directing as well as its cinematography, its score, and its editing. It has also been touted for its handling of the themes of sexuality and masculinity. The performances of Harris and Ali also received widespread acclaim, with many people calling them the best parts of the movie and among the best performances of the year. The film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, along with Best Supporting Actor for Ali and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jenkins and McCraney from a total of eight nominations, at the 89th Academy Awards. It was released as the first LGBTQ-themed mass-marketed feature film with an all-black cast and is the second-lowest-grossing film domestically to win the Oscar for Best Picture (behind The Hurt Locker). Joi McMillon became the first black woman to be nominated for an editing Oscar, and Mahershala Ali became the first Muslim to win an Oscar for an acting performance.

In short, Moonlight has to matter, and not just to The Academy, but to the Black Community as well, whether we are comfortable seeing black men portrayed in ways that differ from how we as individuals choose to live our lives or not. We find ourselves constantly explaining to others that black people are not a monolith, that we’re individuals with our own wants and wishes and dreams…that we each have our own personalities…our own trials and tribulations. So it’s important that stories are told that reflect those differences and that only happens if we continue to support them. Moonlight isn't a perfect movie, but it is a very good one, and I thought so when I first saw it in 2016 (BEFORE it won the Oscar for Best Picture), and judging by the films current scores on Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and IMDB, I think film critics and movie lovers alike are coming around to agreeing with me, slowly but surely.

If you haven’t seen Moonlight yet, you can find it on Paramount Plus, YouTube (Primetime) and HULU (with a premium subscription). It’s also available on Showtime (On Demand).