Let’s just get this out there right up front: Moonlight won’t just end up being the best movie of this year, it’ll end up being one of the very best of the entire decade.
Director Barry Jenkins’ second feature is a multilayered and grand artistic vision, telling the story of Chiron as he grows up black, gay, and poor in Miami. The movie is split into three parts, with three actors playing Chiron at different points in his life. At first, this appears simply to be a way to show us his chronology, and how he changes based on what does and doesn’t happen to him. But look a little deeper and we see that these three parts also represent three distinct aspects of Chiron’s character—parts of him that are always there, that he has to struggle with or cultivate based on his circumstances.
And this points us to the glorious achievement of Jenkins’ film. It tells the story of Chiron growing up black, gay, and poor, and it roots that story in an important and hard reality. But that’s not the only story it’s telling.
It’s been said that the “story of loss and regaining of identity is… the framework of all literature,” and here is where Jenkins turns his gaze back on us. Chiron’s story is very specific, but it becomes universal. It is his search for who he is, just as each and every one of us is searching for who we are. This all sounds a bit lofty, and it is. But Jenkins grounds it in the faces of his three Chirons—the boy who speaks without speaking, the teen who straddles the line between fear and defiance, and the man who must appear strong while still not ever being sure exactly who he is.
Chiron’s story is not just his story, it’s our story-- it’s the difficult, difficult search for who we are, where we can and can’t be vulnerable, where our actions take us, and how everyone around us can affect each of these paths.
At some point you gotta decide for yourself who you gonna be. Can’t let nobody make that decision for you.
