Moonlight

Back in 2017, the Academy Awards were scrambling to prove that they were still relevant in a world that was looking for reasons to point the finger at any perceived lack of diversity. For several years, they were under a lot of scrutiny for a lack of people of color being nominated for Oscars, and a great deal of behind-the-scenes shakeups were happening to distance themselves from that scrutiny. Then came the Oscar ceremony and a lot of excitement over the two front runners: Moonlight and La La Land, two films that were as different as black and white. 

With anticipation, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway came out on stage with what they thought was the Best Picture envelope and made Oscar history with the biggest flub to ever embarrass the broadcast. La La Land was erroneously announced as the winner. For just a minute, those who were crying for diversity were frustrated again. Then, a commotion on stage made it apparent that something had gone wrong. The producers of La La Land called up the producers of Moonlight and graciously conceded that they hadn’t won at all, and to prove it, they held up the real envelope with MOONLIGHT in bold print, showing that the Academy had voted the other way this time. I speculated in my review of La La Land that feelings about that night would have been much more bitter had the mistake been the other way around, and Moonlight was announced erroneously. It would have felt like a cruel joke and a slap in the face to those demanding representation. 

In the nearly ten years since that night, I have had plenty of time to think about that night and about the two films involved. La La Land is a personal favorite of mine as I have a soft spot for movie musicals and films about making films. Moonlight was one of those films that I enjoyed but didn’t speak to my soul because it dealt with some (not all) issues that were outside my personal life experiences. I wasn’t angry about how the vote went, but I was disappointed at the time. I was also interested in revisiting Moonlight just to see if my thoughts had changed after a little bit of distance. 

Moonlight has been referred to as the greatest film of the 21st century. While, in my humble opinion, I find that to be a bit exaggerated, I do see it as one of the most important films in recent years. It is tackling themes that are universal, not just tied to any one race or sexual orientation. We have all felt like we didn’t fit in to one degree or another, and most of us have experienced bullying at some point in our lives. Drugs, and how they can destroy lives and familial ties, is also a relatable subject. While I have no family that I’m aware of that uses illegal drugs, I do have family members that were consumed by alcohol addiction, which is its own kind of drug, one that is even worse in some ways because it is socially acceptable and so easy to get ahold of. Moonlight is an examination of these themes as they affect a person at three different stages of their life.

In the original stage play script, these three stages of life played out simultaneously. Writer Tarell Alvin McCraney wrote this play to be a semi-autobiographical way to cope with his mother’s death from AIDS. This play, originally titled In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, was shelved for about a decade and could easily have been lost forever in the land where unproduced scripts go. But in 2013, Barry Jenkins was looking for a new script to write and direct after several failed attempts to get something going. He, along with producer Adele Romanski, wanted to make a low-budget “personal” film. Jenkins was introduced to McCraney’s play through the Borscht arts collective in Miami and, after some initial discussions with McCraney, wrote the first draft of the film. It was his idea to split the story up into three distinct chapters rather than having it play out simultaneously. 

Jenkins also fell back on his own upbringing, which had a lot of similarities to McCraney’s. A24 Films, a brand-new company at the time, agreed to finance the film and handle the worldwide distribution: it would be their first production. After some interesting casting decisions, including the reluctant Naomi Harris, who feared playing a stereotypical black woman, filming was underway in Florida, despite the lack of tax breaks in that state. This meant that money didn’t stretch as far, but the film would maintain authenticity with the locale. 

The story would follow Chiron Harris (Alex Hibbert, young boy; Ashton Sanders, teen; and Trevante Rhodes, adult), known as Little, who is bullied as a child, partially because he is suspected of being gay. On one such occasion, he hides out from his bullies inside an abandoned crack house and is found by Juan (Mahershala Ali), a drug dealer who feeds him and, after finally learning Chiron’s name and where he lives, takes him home to his mother, Paula (Naomi Harris). Chiron continues to spend time with Juan, who forms a bond with the boy and teaches him the basics of life. One evening, Juan finds Paula in a car with one of his clients, smoking crack, and berates her for neglecting her son, but she turns it on him, rebuking him for selling it to her in the first place. Later, Chiron comes to him, upset and asking questions about drugs, his mother, and what the word “fa**ot” means. Juan comforts him but cannot look up when Chiron asks him if he sells drugs and if his mom uses them.

As a teen, Chiron is still being bullied. He spends his spare time with Teresa (Janelle Monáe), Juan’s girlfriend until his passing, while avoiding Terrell (Patrick Decile), a particularly violent classmate who has it in for him. Chiron and Kevin (Jaden Piner, young boy; Jharrel Jerome, teen; and André Holland, adult) talk about a sexual encounter with a girl Kevin had in the school stairwell that landed him in detention, and Chiron has a dream about the encounter. Later, the two will get together on the beach, smoke a blunt, leading to Kevin kissing and giving Chiron a handjob. Things turn south, though, when Terrell manipulates Kevin at school into beating Chiron severely as part of a hazing ritual. Chiron refuses to tell on who assaulted him but later attacks Terrell with a chair and is arrested while Kevin watches from a distance.

Ten years later, Chiron, now grown up and going by the nickname “Black”, deals drugs in Atlanta. His mother, now in rehab at a drug treatment center, frequently calls him, begging for forgiveness and for him to visit her, which he ignores. Out of nowhere, Kevin calls him and invites him to come visit him in Miami. Chiron finally visits his mother and, though he is withdrawn, the two tearfully reconcile. In Miami, he catches up with Kevin, who, after a short stretch in prison, is now a diner cook. Eventually, they go back to Kevin’s apartment where he admits to Chiron that he is happy, despite life not being what he thought it would be. Chiron, in return, admits that he hasn’t been intimate with anyone since the encounter with Kevin. The two comfort each other as Chiron remembers himself as “Little”, standing on a beach in the moonlight.

There is a great deal of personal heartbreak to be found in the imagery seen here. It’s hard to watch sometimes, especially when hearkening back to my own childhood and the bullies I had to contend with. While I’m not gay, I was often accused of it by bigger kids who felt it was their lot in life to punish scrawny little kids like I was by throwing me to the ground and pummeling me into submission. I remember all too well watching from a distance for those kids to leave the school grounds before making my way home. A kindly librarian, perhaps sensing the real reason I was staying after school, got me into reading, and I developed a love for literature thanks to this time in my life. I’m sure I’m not the only one who found a love for the escapism of books and movies as a way to cope with the cruelty of the real world. 

All that made it so that I could more easily empathize with a young boy being chased into a crack house to avoid kids determined to beat on him. McCraney and Jenkins have clearly not forgotten what it is like being the picked-upon nor how difficult it can be when there is no strong family support at home. Chiron’s father is out of the picture, and his mother is a crack addict. Later, in his teenage years, she is selling her body to feed her habit and stealing money from him, too. On top of all that, his one good friend is pushed into beating him badly, something that had to feel like a complete betrayal, especially after their moment of intimacy earlier. This betrayal is what finally gets him to snap and fight back. It also plays a big part in why the adult Chiron can no longer open himself up to anyone lest he gets hurt again. 

There is an unfortunate racial stereotype out there that Black people don’t have fathers in their lives. Paula is a single mother, which I’m sure is one of the reasons Naomi Harris was leery about taking this part. This film emphasizes the importance of having a positive male role model in your life, someone who can be a stable influence on you and teach you all about life. We get this symbolized in a scene where Juan is teaching Chiron how to swim, but we can assume there were lots of other situations just like that. Chiron is comfortable enough with Juan to come to him about his concerns about his own sexuality. Juan dies sometime between the first chapter and the second, and we never learn what happened, but things go downhill even more for the boy once Juan is out of the picture. His only real stability is in Teresa, who does what she can despite not being his mother. 

There are no easy answers in life, not really. The final chapter is about reconciliations, but it is also an examination of how life is not what we expect it to be. Chiron has become like Juan, a drug dealer. We don’t know if Juan died from an illness or in a violent encounter related to his business. The same thing could happen to Chiron at any time; dealing drugs is a dangerous business. You could even say Like Father Like Son, as Juan was a father figure to him in his formidable years. This was a very personal story to McCraney, and with the help of Jenkins, he has crafted a story that speaks to our current generation who are learning to navigate a dangerous landscape at far too young of an age, often without the guiding hands of a stable family environment. Watching this, we can emphasize and sympathize with Chiron and, by proxy, McCraney and Jenkins. This script won them the Oscar and, after that brief mishap on stage, won the best picture, too. After nine years to reflect on it, I can agree, the better film won. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Adele Romanski (won)

Best Director: Barry Jenkins

Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali (won)

Best Supporting Actress: Naomie Harris

Best Adapted Screenplay: Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney (won)

Best Cinematography: James Laxton

Best Film Editing: Joi McMillon and Nat Sanders

Best Original Score: Nicholas Britell

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Release Date: October 21, 2016

Running Time: 111 minutes

Rated R

Starring: Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomi Harris, and Mahershala Ali

Directed by: Barry Jenkins