Barry Jenkins Moonlight is the story of a sensitive young black man shyron who feels pressured by his hyper male Miami environment to deny his sexuality and true self told in three chapters following three phases of his life the film stands out for both its form and its content how it's made and what the story is about and the seamless way and marries that how and what together let's walk through what you might have missed about Moonlight and why the film has drawn such exuberant praise from critics and audiences structurally the three distinct chapters highlight the
fragility mutability and complexity of a person's identity over time by casting three different actors for the three different versions of shyron the Lost young little whose nickname is an insult thrust on him and a name he must reject the teenager chyron who's dealing with his mother's worsening addiction and the hardened black who pressed his real self and put on a gangster facade Moonlight Taps into something that many of us feel that we're actually different people at different stages of Our Lives there's continuity between the actor's performances yet to an external Observer they're not the same
person films like this that allow you to understand that life is a growing process and it's important to understand that that's okay the choice explores the relationship between external Persona and internal self Chron's identity is always interacting with his Community shaped by how they see him and label him and how he responds to that communal perception as playright mccraine has said a key part of the story is that quote the community knows things about him before he knows them about himself you ever see the way he people want to place him in a category before
he even understands what that means am I a [ __ ] no no you could be gay but you ain't got to let nobody call you no [ __ ] how do I I know you know you know this structure reveals the universal seed in shyron struggle for self-awareness at the same time there's an important particular story of the young black man who's trapped by his society's expectations of masculinity meanwhile he escapes a forced inauthentic Persona thanks to the help of a few who throw him a Lifeline based on the unproduced play in Moonlight black
boys look Blue by Terrell Alvin mccraine Moonlight is a Triumph of expressive camera and sound design it's not just that it looks and sounds great every camera and sound Choice by Jenkins and DP James Laxton has a clear purpose they're always working to express Chron's inner World from moment to moment we're taking the camera rather than allowing the audience to to remain outside the film we place the camera between actors we want to make the audience an active participant the opening scene gives us the kind of slick swirling camera work associated with Michael Bay Blockbusters
it tells us this character Mersa Ali Juan a big man in town and a drug dealer is calm cool and has status like the camera he's smooth the next scene thrusts us into the opposite feeling discomfort with an extremely shaky handheld camera it tells us this boy shyon nicknamed little is unsure insecure his life is painful chaos we're placed in his perspective by the overpowering sound of the rocks and objects thrown by the bullies we feel how trapped and terrified this boy is in the dinner table scene between Juan little and Juan's girlfriend Teresa the
camera instead of Simply intercutting between single shots of the three people pans smoothly between Juan and Teresa the fluid movement tells us there's warmth and connection between the couple expressed by the camera through the spatial connection it also gives us Little's point of view as he looks from one to the other and underlines the secure Bond he feels from them as one talks to little on the beach the camera uses the same motion connecting mentor to youth so again we feel the connection between the characters throughout the film shots from behind thwart our ability to
read chyron and his emotions we're always trying to see inside just as he's trying and often failing to see himself truly the film uses circular shots to signify feeling part of the ingroup early on we see boys playing on a field to exuberant classical music the smooth circular camera captures their feeling of release and happiness within the group we then break off to see little who doesn't feel part of that group and that's when little meets Kev who will become his lifelong friend the circular shot comes back again when the teenage bully Tyrell Engineers The
Knockout of teenage chyron pressuring Kev to hit him here the circular shot is menacing as the camera focuses on Tyrell we see how the peer pressure of The In Crowd can be a terrifying damaging Force the camera and sound also play with disjointedness when we see Chron's crack addicted Mother Paula in the middle of a high the face on camera and The Sound Don't you I guess you getting grown the off feeling transitions us into Paula's cown as she flips from Elation to panic and abuse give me the damn money I don't have no money
years later when Kevin chyron reunite and share an intimate look again the sound is disjointed from the picture for them the moment is larger than life surreal and thus the off picture and sound are used to register a different effect here the momentousness of this meeting throughout classical music signifies Chron's inner self at odds with his chaotic outer environment and his yearning for peace and self-expression a good example of this is the scene when Paula yells at shyron in the doorway the shot is still and the classical music plays as he disconnects from the disturbing
external reality meanwhile in the ocean scene with Juan and little the classical music and fluid motion are combined with a low immersive camera that makes it appear the water washes over us we're included in Chron's baptism or initiation into some new part of himself all of these camera and sound choices are undeniably beautiful and Artful but more importantly at every moment they have intention they express Chron's inner World movies about depressed parts of society or people living in poverty or hardship tend to be told in a certain common language we think of social realism harsh
camera naturalism a stripped down look severity Grim visuals loud jarring noises but Jenkins isn't interested in a social realist severe portrait of Miami what's really significant is that Jenkins is disrupting the formula of how a story about a young black man in a poor neighborhood is often told here it's not with hip-hop music not with a traditional narrative trajectory not with only a jarring depiction of misery or outer chaos instead of taking the hood to the art housee we're going to bring the art housee to the hood you know we have these violins and and
Bas Foles that are being filtered through his perspective being filtered through the sound of Miami with these words about taking the Art House to the hood Jenkins hits on a truth about our expectations as if this artistic music rising out of his soul isn't what we expect from the movie just as it isn't what others expect of chyron critics have described Moonlight as a visual poem the movie shows us what's inside of chyron and how his inner life can be tragically mismatched with his outer one when Kev and shyron talk about their search for tranquility
they acate it with the breeze Kev says y sometimes around the way where we live you can catch that same Breeze just come through the hood and it's like everything stopped for a second cuz everyone just want to feel it h should make you want to cry feel so good this Breeze evokes the feeling of being able to relax from the daily routine of putting on a persona and letting yourself breathe and be yourself we hear the breeze in the early scene when little starts to connect with Juan at the beach wild little short just
like you we hear it during the first time shyron is touched by another person Kev after Kev is pressured into turning on shyron and beating him we hear total silence as if a death has occurred and for the time being it seems that the shyron of chapter 2 has died to be replaced by the hard black of chapter 3 only when he later reunites with Kev and they open up with each other do we again hear the sound of a [Music] breeze This breeze represents the feeling of being loved the presence of someone who loves
us Moonlight is about the people who help you you know the people who who do love you the ones who do emerge and throw you a raft even though onean is a flawed or misguided role model in many ways he's selling drugs to Chron's mother and fully aware of the problems with that he and Teresa give shyron love and acceptance which is what he needs more than anything the story is just a beautiful Journey about how you can find belonging but only through another person and how love has the ability to heal and Kev finally
fulfills xyron's deep need to be seen as he really is to be accepted and to be touched the breeze is also connected with the healing presence of the ocean as well as with the film's title Moonlight Juan first talks about the Moonlight to little the moonlight black boys look blue you blue at some point you got to decide for yourself who you going to be can't let nobody make that decision for you Moonlight takes on the meaning of our secret innermost selves the person one really is alone with that Moonlight in Chron's case for many
years that person may rarely if ever be brought out into the Sun the movie with its three chapters titled after shon's three names or personas is about this search for the true self both to know and to understand one's inner nature and to live openly as that person like the breeze and the water being one's authentic self has a feeling of subtle motion fluidity relaxation escape from the confusion of environments that pressure us to fit into rigid expectations when chyron at the end admits his need to be touched by Kev we conclude with the final
shot of his young self in the Moonlight turning to camera and he looks to us including us and inviting us to do the same Jenkins achievement is a master class in visual storytelling driven by character a sophisticated storytelling technique uses all the tools in the toolbox to draw Us in to surprise us and to change our expectations of how stories are told [Music]
