On 'Moonlight'

(A24)

For the next four weeks, NGL will be recommending a piece of art to consume from black creators. This time, he writes about the incredible, important, and award-winning 2016 film Moonlight.

Non-linear storytelling may be a more recent trend in popular media, but it sure doesn’t mean you can’t perfect the traditional route. Moonlight tells the story of its protagonist, Chiron Harris, through three vignettes at different stages in his life.

Oh yeah — spoilers. C’mon, you’ve had a year to take in these two fantastic movies!

The first vignette, titled “Little,” kicks off with a young Chiron hiding from bullies in a crackhouse in Liberty City, Miami. A Cuban drug dealer named Juan, played by Mahershala Ali, finds the quiet and helpless Chiron and proceeds to take him under his wing, teaching him how to swim and giving him life advice.

Things get complicated, however, when Chiron’s mother, Paula, disapproves of her son spending so much time with a stranger. It’s then revealed that Paula has serious drug addiction problems, constantly taking her frustrations out on Chiron and leading him to spend more time with Juan and his kind girlfriend Tessa. Nonetheless, everything falls down when Chiron asks Juan if the elder sold his mother crack; the final shot we get of “Little” is Chiron exiting Juan’s home while the drug dealer visibly hangs his head.

“Chiron,” the next vignette, features a teenage Chiron spending time with Paula after Juan’s death, as well as dealing with a school bully, Terrel. His mom has started to support her crack addiction through prostitution, sometimes even physically coercing money from her son.

Chiron does have one friend in Kevin, who he secretly has feelings for. As alluded to throughout the film, Chiron is seen as different due to his homosexuality. In a special moment between the two, they have a romantic encounter, only for Kevin to aid Terrel the next day in beating up the protagonist. Unwilling to report his assailants, Chiron decides to smash a chair over Terrel’s back during class; as the police take him away, he glares at Kevin through the car window.

Our final glimpse into the life of Chrion, “Black,” revolves around the protagonist, now an adult and well-off drug dealer living in Atlanta, as he makes his way back to Miami to visit his mother. Paula, now at a drug treatment center, apologizes for not taking care of him, and that she loves him more than ever, even if the feeling is not mutual.

The film ends with Chiron visiting Kevin, who’s now working at a diner and parenting a child he had with his ex-girlfriend. The two go back to Kevin’s apartment, where Chiron breaks down and admits he hasn’t been intimate with anyone since their moment on the beach back in high school. As the two embrace, the story cuts to a flashback, in which a young Chiron stands on a beach in the moonlight.

Mahershala Ali at the Oscars, where he would go on to win Best Supporting Actor (146033_3792 by Disney | ABC Television Group / CC BY-ND 2.0)

In reading my abridged version of Moonlight above, you get a general sense of the invigorating tale Barry Jenkins pieces together. Nevertheless, you simply need to watch the film to comprehend the pure, raw emotion that hits you at every twist and turn.

Like, I was on the verge of tears at the end of both of the first two vignettes. I haven’t felt that way since the “Martha” scene from Batman v. Superman.

(Okay, okay, I’m obviously kidding there. But I don’t think I’ve ever been as moved by a movie as I was while watching Moonlight).

Mahershala Ali may have only appeared for the first third or so of the movie, but he frickin’ kills it. You can see his internal conflict every step of the way as he tries to stick to his morals in acting as a father figure for Chiron. The inherent problem, of course, is that Juan is a man whose comfortable lifestyle has been attained through illegal, dangerous, and, quite frankly, immoral means.

The scene in which Juan berates Paula for smoking crack while raising her child, only for her to fire back that he was the one who sold it to her in the first place, is gut-wrenching. To then follow it up with the scene in which Chiron walks out on Juan is brilliant story-telling.

Another thing about Moonlight that cannot be praised enough is its masterful cinematography. While watching it for the first time, I was constantly impressed by the wide and varying array of shots depicting Chrion’s life. As the saying goes, showing — not telling — is the most effective way to tell a story, and Jenkins was able to work in various motifs (such as the intimacy of water and the different meanings behind the colors blue, black, and pink) effortlessly.

Putting a product this superior together on an aforementioned $4 million budget is, to put it bluntly, mind-boggling. Now a household name, Jenkins will most likely be given the creative freedom to pursue whatever idea he conjures up in the future; his adaptation of If Beale Street Could Talk in 2018 received universal praise. It was a huge step for the film’s distributor, too, as A24 has been on a roll of late in releasing critically-acclaimed hits such as Lady Bird, Uncut Gems, and Waves.

When it comes to Moonlight, come for the Oscar hype and prestige A24 is quickly accumulating, but stay for a stupendous performance from Ali and a gritty tale that hits acutely close to the heart.

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