Moonlight (2016)

Moonlight is a 2016 film written and directed by Barry Jenkins and based on Tarrel Alvin McCraney's unpublished semi-autobiographical play In Midnight Black Boys Look Blue. It stars Trevante Rhodes, Ashton Sanders, Alex Hibbert, André Holland, Jharrel Jerome, Jaden Piner, Janelle Monáe, Naomie Harris, and Mahershala Ali.

Plot
The film follows gay Black man Chiron in three stages of his life: childhood (Little), adolescence (Chiron), and adulthood (Black); exploring his difficulties with his sexuality, identity, and the abuse he goes through. Among those influencing him on his journey are his best friend Kevin, his cocaine addict mother Paula, a drug dealer named Juan who becomes a father figure to him, and Juan's girlfriend Teresa.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It captures life in a poor neighborhood affected by the crack epidemic really well.
 * 2) Chiron is a really relatable protagonist, whose life we get to see in three chapters of the aforementioned stages of his life.
 * 3) Juan is a great father figure to Chiron, and his girlfriend Teresa is really kind to the latter.
 * 4) The visuals are breathtaking, for example when Juan teaches Chiron how to swim.
 * 5) The scenes where Chiron reconciles with Paula and Kevin are really heartwarming. Plus, the ending, where Black sees himself as Little, is a nice call-back to the beginning.
 * 6) It does a good job in pointing out the flaws in the American justice system that caused Chiron to turn to dealing drugs in adulthood, specifically his criminal record made it impossible to get a legal job. While it doesn't sugarcoat their circumstances, it still portrays the drug dealers and addicts sympathetically too, in a nice deviation from the way they're usually portrayed in movies.

The Only Bad Quality

 * 1) Terrell, Chiron's bully, is really mean-spirited. He manipulates Kevin into hazing his friend, and Chiron hits him with a chair, getting the latter sent to a juvenile detention center and forcing Kevin to atone for his mistake years later.

Reception
Moonlight has received many positive reviews since its release, with critics praising the story's originality and the dismantling of stereotypes. On aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 9.0/10, with 98% of 389 reviews being positive. The critical consensus reads, "Moonlight uses one man's story to offer a remarkable and brilliantly crafted look at lives too rarely seen in cinema." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 99 out of 100 based on 53 critics, indicating "universal acclaim." David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter praised the acting, cinematography, and handling of the characters' identities; while Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York gave Moonlight five stars and praised Barry Jenkins' direction. Additionally, the film holds a 7.4/10 rating on IMDb, and some critics criticized the screenplay.

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