Moonlight (4/5 Stars)

 “Moonlight” is the type of movie that provokes an IMDB search after watching it. I was vaguely familiar with some of the actors. Mahershala Ali I know from ‘House of Cards’ and Andre Holland I know from ‘The Knick.’ Naomie Harris is the latest Moneypenny in the James Bond Franchise. But I hadn’t heard of Barry Jenkins who wrote and directed this movie. Turns out the last time he made a movie was six years ago. And that’s too bad, because from watching this movie it is plain that he is a storyteller who excels at not only writing words and coaching actors but also for visual framing and sound design. In other words, he is a complete writer/director. Such a person should be making a new movie every one or two years, not six. We are missing out by not keeping him continuously employed.

“Moonlight” is one of the small intimate pictures that is done to perfection. The story is split into three chapters all named after the various incarnations of the main character. The first story is called ‘Little’ and takes place when the boy is a child. The second is called ‘Chiron’ and takes place in high school. The third is called ‘Black’ and takes place in adulthood. The elements of the story are not particularly new: A bad childhood and awkward adolescence with bullies. Two other elements, themselves not particularly new, become novel when put together: 1) an African American boy with an absentee father and a drug-addicted mother and 2) the boy happens to be a homosexual in a community that has way too many other problems to be progressive in that respect. But the movies strength comes not from the fact it checks off these boxes in the world of identity politics (it could have and a lesser and lazier movie would have been all about it), it is a great movie because this is a story about the identity of this one particular person, and the movie in no way excludes portions of the audience from empathizing with this one particular person’s search for identity. He ultimately defines himself from the inside-out, as opposed to say from the outside-in in contrast with some exterior societal force.

A movie that focuses so much on the interior development of a character will focus as much on the good times as well as the bad, and though this character has dark forces around him, the movie’s memorable scenes are moments of kindness. “Little” escapes into a crack-house to escape bullies and is found by a drug dealer (Mahershala Ali). This man turns into a kind of mentor through time and at one point teaches ‘Little’ how to swim. (To give a sense of how completely the Director uses the artform, this tiny sounding scene is one of the best parts in a great movie complete with poetic exchanges and a striking orchestral score). “Chiron” dealing with a deteriorating home life finds solace in the home of Theresa, the surviving spouse of the drug dealer. And in all three timelines Little/Chiron/Black starts, continues, and reignites a friendship with Kevin (Old Kevin is played by Andre Holland).

I feel like I’m doing a disservice to the movie by trying to describe it. All I’m going to say more is that this movie will likely be high on my made up Oscar category Best Use of a Song. It’s ‘Hello Stranger’ by Barbara Lewis. It occupies a moment that makes the picture worth a thousand words. And my main criticism of the movie is that it wasn’t long enough.