Film Review - Moonlight (2017)

Moonlight is directed by Barry Jenkins and is based off of an undeveloped stage play called "In Moonlight Black Boys Turn Blue" and tells the tale of Chiron a young black man growing up in a rough neighbourhood in Miami, Florida we see him as a young boy played by Alex Hibbert as a teenager played by Ashton Sanders and as a young man played by Trevante Rhodes.

This was a film that I will say I admire more than I like and I do like this movie very much indeed I think Jenkins did a beautiful job directing the film a lot of the scenes in the film look very true to life I feel and at times the bold colours and strong lighting make it look like a painting especially in some of the night scenes plus the close ups he does in the film have this very intimate feel to them as if you yourself are looking at that person up close like you would someone in real life and also the film is very nicely structured which although some parts feel slow it never feels fatty in terms of its scenes.

The film also has a slew of great performances the three men who play Chiron in the stages of his life are all very good little Alex in particular does so much while not having a lot of dialogue to say in his scenes, Naomie Harris who initially had turned down the film thankfully changed her mind as she too is very good as are Mahersala Ali who rightfully won an Academy Award for his role here and Janelle Monae who was also recently in Hidden Figures is very good though both of them do not have large roles in the film.

But lastly the film captures very well the painful reality of someone who is struggling with their sexuality and how Chiron chooses to withdraw somewhat from the world around him primarily because of the circumstances of his upbringing and also how others around him will feel especially other men in his community where the street is sadly where a lot of them can end up and for a sensitive boy like Chiron it makes those growing pains feel a lot worse and this is why I admire this film as much as I do.

And so that was Moonlight a very admirable film that was correctly crowned Best Picture even if I don't love it as much as others have done but still this is a film well worth seeing, 3 and a half out of 5.