Part of Queer Qlassics
Writer-director Barry Jenkins (MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY) returns with an impeccably crafted study of African-American masculinity from a vital creative voice in contemporary cinema. Though his story is set in Miami, Jenkins shuns the familiar neon-lit aesthetic for a different kind of life, miles away from South Beach, in an area hit by a crack epidemic. Bullied at school and beaten down by a harsh home life, young Chiron risks becoming a statistic: another Black man dominated and ultimately destroyed by the system. As he grows, it becomes clear that his real battle is an internal one — a reckoning with his complex love for his best friend. MOONLIGHT takes Chiron from childhood to his teens to adulthood, but instead of offering a clear progression of time, Jenkins plunges us into an impressionistic vision of Chiron’s psyche in which sensuality, pain and unhealed wounds take center stage. Anchored in an unforgettable performance by emerging talent Trevante Rhodes (as the older Chiron), MOONLIGHT explores the human need to feel connected.
“Both a disarmingly, at times almost unbearably personal film and an urgent social document, a hard look at American reality and a poem written in light, music and vivid human faces…. From first shot to last, MOONLIGHT is about as beautiful a movie as you are ever likely to see.” —A.O. Scott, NYT Critic’s Pick, New York Times “A perfect film, one that exemplifies not only the formal and aesthetic capabilities of a medium at its most visually rich, but a capacity for empathy and compassion that reminds audiences of one of the chief reasons why we go to movies: to be moved, opened up and maybe permanently changed…. As a bold, inspiring example of poetic-humanist cinema it’s almost an ecstatic experience.” —Ann Hornaday, Washington Post “Leaves you feeling both stripped bare and restored, slightly better prepared to step out and face the world of people around you, with all the confounding challenges they present. There’s not much more you can ask from a movie.” —Stephanie Zacharek, TIME Magazine “A beautiful drama that manages to be both epic and understated…. MOONLIGHT transforms rage and frustration into unadulterated intimacy.” —Eric Kohn, IndieWire
