Better Late than Never on the Incredible Film "Moonlight"
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I just watched "Moonlight". I saw it yesterday for the first time and I cannot stop thinking about how great ofmovie it really, really is. I know that a lot of what I will say today has already been said, and the praise I will heap on it has already been heaped on from other places. But, I just saw it and I thoroughly loved every single moment of the movie.
Everything about "Moonlight" is perfect. The actors, the writers, the director, the story, the locations, it was all superb. As I said in my piece earlier this week about the Oscars, I was very much itching to see this movie. It arrived in my mailbox (Yes, Netflix still mails out movies) and as soon as my kids retired to their rooms for quiet and nap time, I shut myself off from everything around me and put all my focus on watching "Moonlight".
The movie is broken up into three chapters of the growth of a young gay black man in Miami and Georgia. In chapter one, we get the story of "Little". That was the main character's nickname as a child. His real name is Chiron, but everyone calls him "Little". It's a fitting nickname. He is small in stature, personality and grit. He constantly gets picked on and chased home by bullies from school everyday. He is also a confused young man. He doesn't know his place in the world. No one does at the age of 6 or 7 or 8, but Little is really confused and lost.
Little is hiding from bullies one day, and the local drug kingpin happens upon him in one of the abandoned crack houses. The drug dealer, played masterfully by Oscar winner Mahershala Ali, goes by the name of Juan, and he takes Little under his wing so to speak. He takes him from the crack house to get some food and tries to get him to talk. Little is so scared of everything, he does not say one word to Juan until he gets to his home and meets his girlfriend Teresa(Janelle Monae). She is a very pleasant and nice person to be around. She is a much better mother figure than Little's mom.
Little's mom, Paula, another great performance from an Oscar nominated actress, Naomie Harris, is a crack addicted, verbally abusive mom. All she does is berate and yell at Little. She is also very upset when she realizes he is spending a lot of time with Juan. She and Juan have a powerful argument on one of his streets.
Because Little needs an adult to look up to, Juan become the father figure that Little desperately needs though. He teaches him things about life. He teaches him to be the type of person he wants to be. He teaches him to swim. Even when Little comes home from school one day, after being chased and verbally harassed by bullies, he tells him that it is okay to be gay. Little doesn't really know what this means, but he knows that he can trust, and that Juan respects and loves him. Shortly after this heart to heart, Little realizes that Juan is also his mom's dealer, and that is too much for such a young kid to handle. He cuts off communication with Juan. We then get to chapter 2, "Chiron".
Chapter 2 of the movie focuses on high school aged Chiron. He is still very skinny and very tortured and trusts no one except Teresa and his life long friend Kevin. He still gets harassed at school. High school is hard enough, but add on being gay, having a drug addicted mom and being belittled everyday, Chiron had it much tougher than most. One of his bullies threatens to beat him up one day after school, and while Chiron is hiding out, Kevin bumps into him.
Chiron has always had a special place for Kevin in his heart. He loves Kevin. Kevin seems to be into girls during their conversation. But, one night, they are both hanging out on the beach, and Chiron has his first sexual experience with a man. This is one of the first, and probably only time in the movie that we see the character of Chiron smile. He looks like he may start to feel accepted, at least by one person. But, the very next day after school, Chiron's main bully convinces Kevin to punch him in the face three times, and then the rest of the bullies jump him. They put a pretty rough beating on him. It is really tough to watch. He is a helpless kid, and the only person he trusts, besides Teresa, has turned his back on him. Not to mention, his mom is more strung out than ever before and only talks to her son when she needs money for a fix. He is again, that confused scared little boy that he was in the beginning of the movie.
Chiron goes home after getting beat up, and shows up to school the next day looking for vengeance. This is one of the most powerful scenes in the whole movie in my opinion. Chiron walks through the entire school incredibly amped up and angry at the world, and when he arrives to class, he throws his backpack on his desk, picks up a chair and smashes it over his main bully's back. He then hits him with the broken chair a few more times before he is restrained, and we next see him being put into a cop car, and he and Kevin lock eyes before the cop car pulls off. This leads up to the final chapter of the movie, "Black".
In this chapter we see grown up Chiron, who is now a drug kingpin himself, driving a very similar car to what Juan had when they first met, he is ripped and has become a "gangster". He only goes by "Black" now, and he runs streets in Atlanta. He is the man when it comes to dealing. Juan has passed and he has lost contact with Teresa and Kevin and his mom. His mother still calls him all the time and wants to reconnect, but he has made an entirely new life for himself as "Black".
Chiron/Black's mom calls all the time, so one night he answers the phone, he assumes it's his mom, but much to his surprise, it's Kevin. They have a very short, but also very sweet conversation. Kevin apologizes for what happened in the past, and Chiron forgives him. He also tells him that he misses him. Kevin reciprocates, and tells him that if he ever goes through Miami again to find him. He is a cook now. We find out that Kevin went to jail as a young adult as well, found a love for cooking, so hence his new job as a chef.
Chiron decides to make his way back to Miami, this time as Black. He goes to visit his mother first, who is now in rehab. Their conversation is a long time coming and very moving, sad and gives them both closure. It's incredibly touching, yet sad at the same time, It is some masterful directing and acting by all involved. After he makes amends with his mom, he goes to see Kevin. When Kevin finally realizes that Chiron is in the restaurant, he looks to be filled with joy. They sit and they talk. They catch up. Kevin talks about his child and his child's mother. He tells him about his time in jail. He tells him about how he is making the best life for himself that he can. Throughout all this, Chiron is silent. He has reverted back to Little.
Chiron finally opens up to Kevin, and Kevin is not happy that he is a dealer and a "gangster". They proceed to Kevin's place after he gets off work to talk some more. While Kevin is going on about making his new life, Chiron finally opens up to him, telling him he is the only man that he has let touch him ever. I'm positive this is meant literally and figuratively. After saying this, we see tears welling up in Chiron's eyes. Kevin gives him a loving look. The movie closes on the 2 of them hugging each other on the couch, Chiron in tears.
This was a gripping, sad and difficult movie to watch. It's not difficult in the way "The Revenant" was, where I will never watch it again, I plan on purchasing "Moonlight". It was difficult because Chiron/Little/Black's life was so tough, and each actor portrayed that to perfection. Alex R. Hibbert as "Little", Ashton Sanders as "Chiron" and Trevante Rhodes as "Black" were each exceptional. They did not look all that alike, but I heard someone else say this, I cannot recall who, but they all had the same eyes and they all portrayed the pain and difficult life that this young man has. I was very much moved by this movie. As I said at the top, I cannot stop thinking about it. I have told everyone I know that they need to watch it immediately. I haven't seen many of the other Best Picture nominees, but I'm pretty damn sure that none of them will do to me what "Moonlight" did to me. "Moonlight" is a work of art and will go down as an all time classic. It was an incredible movie.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.
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