Moonlight (2016)

Directed by: Barry Jenkins

Starring: Mahershala Ali, Trevante Rhodes, Naomie Harris

Synopsis: “A look at three defining chapters in the life of Chiron, a young black man growing up in Miami. His epic journey to manhood is guided by the kindness, support and love of the community that helps raise him.” (Google)

I thought Moonlight (2016) would be the perfect movie to end my reviews, since it’s a coming-of-age movie, and serves as a great transition as we head into Pride month. I know I’m supposed to be reviewing movies, but that part of this post will be brief. It won “Best Picture” at the Oscars in 2017 so one might deduce that it’s a pretty amazing movie. They’d be right (but Black Panther was also nominated for Best Picture this year… so, maybe that means we shouldn’t always take their word for it), and there isn’t much I could say that hasn’t already been said. It is visually stunning, emotionally moving, and goes into detail about a message that needed to be heard. I wanted to take some time to talk more about the message and what this movie means to me.

The relationships in this movie are complex and not always stable, but the underlying message always remains the same– that although it feels the world is against you at times, you are deserving of love. Young Chiron starts to believe that the homophobic slurs that other children call him define who he is, but he actually has people in his life that lovingly assure him that this is not the case. Those that do not have that support in real life can find that reassurance by watching this movie.

Moonlight is about the struggles that emerge when it comes to identity- more specifically the combination of being black and gay. Representation means everything in an age that revolves around media. To understand why this movie is so important to so many people, it is important to know that this combination is generally seen as taboo amongst the black community. It makes the hardships of being a minority that much more difficult. As a result, members of both the LGBTQ+ and black community have to constantly pretend to be someone they are not, or else put up with discrimination from the people they care about the most. It is a lot of effort to consistently hide an inherent part of yourself, and the shame builds up when the people around you unknowingly speak about your “kind” degradingly. I’ve seen it happen and experienced it firsthand. Watching this movie and realizing that no one is alone in experiencing this is why my emotions were invoked so intensely. This one is a real tear jerker. Watching Chiron grow up and become his true self unapologetically is something that so many young children living the same thing needed to see. It is a beacon of hope in the way that it encourages so many people that it will get better.