![]() Jenkins is not shy of breaking out Mozart’s Laudate Dominum over a woozy, wordless scene of kids playing. There is an array of visually ravishing dream sequences, epiphanic surges, hallucinatory closeups, lush swathes of music. Moonlight put me in mind of John Singleton, Terrence Malick and Charles Burnett, but also Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story the structure even had me thinking about Tolstoy’s trilogy: Childhood, Boyhood and Youth. Love, sex, survival, mothers and father figures are its themes, the last one foregrounded by the poignant absence of the fathers themselves. It is the kind of film that leaves you feeling somehow mentally smarter and physically lighter. MOONLIGHT MOVIE FULLThe film has power and generosity, giving such full access to his thoughts and feelings that it’s as if you are getting them delivered intravenously. Moonlight is about a young African American man and his coming of age, presented as three stages in his life, like the panels of a triptych. Barry Jenkins writes and directs, having adapted Tarell Alvin McCraney’s unproduced play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. It’s far too early in the year to call Moonlight the best of 2017, but it would be among the finest of any year.T he combination of artistry and emotional directness in this film is overwhelming. The three actors playing Chiron – Alex R Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, Trevante Rhodes – serve Jenkins majestically. The heartbreaking question, “What’s a f*****t?” uttered by a nine-year-old speaks volumes about how the world sees him and what he doesn’t see of himself. When he does speak, Jenkins’ script makes every word count. ![]() He’s ever watchful of the world but too afraid to take part in it, only allowing himself fleeting moments of freedom and trust in others before curling back into his shell. Chiron, at all ages, rarely speaks, more often telling his story through wordless moments, as he watches those around him – a sympathetic drug dealer (Mahershala Ali) who befriends him as a boy a childhood friend who reappears at every stage of Chiron’s life – and tries to understand how they live in confidence and relative happiness, which he cannot find. ![]() The emotions of Chiron’s journey are huge, but Jenkins plays them all softly. The authenticity with which Jenkins tells Chiron’s story makes it surprising that this isn’t autobiographical (it’s actually based on a play, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tarell Alvin McCraney). At nine, he’s barely aware of what this means as a teenager he’s fighting furiously against it, while also nervously exploring it as an adult he’s buried his true self so deep he’s almost suffocated it completely. Sensitive and shy, Chiron is teased for being gay, which he is. The second film by writer-director Barry Jenkins (his first, 2008’s Medicine For Melancholy, was well-reviewed but not widely seen) visits three stages in the life of Chiron, a boy growing up in Miami with his drug-addicted mother (Naomie Harris). This is a film of gentle moments and pregnant silences that tells a story the vast majority won’t directly relate to, but does so in such a way that everyone can feel its pain. Moonlight’s status as an award-season champion – it’s already taken a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture (Drama) – rising above much starrier, more expensive films, is at odds with its quiet grace. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |