Moonlight (2016)

Moonlight (2016)

7/10

Starring

Trevante Rhodes

André Holland

Janelle Monáe

Mahershala Ali

Directed by Barry Jenkins

Moonlight is a drama movie that grows as you watch, the movie is deeper than deep if such a phrase exists and it delivers ground breaking performances that will leave you at the edge of your sit as you see the characters develop and grow before you.

Here is a movie that caused a stir in the Oscars, getting eight nominations and going home with three. Two of which were for Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali) and Best Adapted Screenplay. When it was time for Best Picture, the announcers made a mistake and called La La Land (2016).

The award of Best Picture was supposed to go to Moonlight, and there on stage the La La Land (2016) crew announced the error and the award was given to Moonlight.

Now there is the talk that the mistake will steal the shine of the movie, which I have to say in a way it did, but regardless of the shine stealing winning the Academy Award for Best Picture was the reason I decided to see this movie. Moonlight is the first all-black cast and the first LGBT film to win the Best Picture award and the question I had prior to seeing this movie is, was it worth it?

To answer that I have to say yes.

Other than the Academy Award, Mahershala Ali also won Critics Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor and the movie won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama.

The movie explored the life of a young boy as he grows up discovering himself and his sexuality. His struggles coming to terms with who he is and dealing with a drug abuser for a mother.

As he grows he is bullied, betrayed and even denied the needed love to feel welcome.

The movie starts with the introduction of the lead Chiron as a child. There we see him bullied by other kids as he runs and hide in an abandoned home. He was rescued from the chase by a man named Juan (Mahershala Ali) who took Chiron under his wings. Chiron’s mother was disgusted by the relationship between Chrion and Juan.

As Chiron grew to a teen, he continued to struggle with the problem of expressing himself and was bullied by his other colleagues in school. One day the bullies called his friend Kevin to drop him.

After the fight, Chiron reacted roughly which caused him to be arrested.

The movie is awesome and is worth seeing.