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    Moonlight

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    "Moonlight" is a great film, one you’re likely to hear about in 2017 when people are making their “best of 2016” list. Just a few minutes in, I was hooked. I knew this was going to be something special. I'm still not sure what the title refers to (the different phases of the moon? ) but that doesn't matter. It's one that's not to be missed.

    Divided into three parts, “Moonlight” (I'm going to repeat that title often so you remember it next time you’re at the movie theater), tells the story of Chiron, a shy and introverted black child living with his emotionally abusive and drug addicted mother Paula (Naomie Harris) As he grows up, Chiron struggles with his sexuality amid a multitude of real-life problems including bullies, loneliness, peer pressure, poverty, and drugs. As a child, Chiron is played by Alex Hibbert. As a teen, by Ashton Anders and as an adult by Trevante Rhodes.

    You don’t often see films as honest as “Moonlight”. The emotions, the performances, and the story cut deep, they strike you at your core and allow you to understand perfectly what all of these characters are about, regardless of what your own experiences might be. Believe me, I’m so out of tune with what being a black kid raised by a single mom is like that when I read the description, I thought the protagonist’s name was pronounced /ˈkaɪrən/, like the centaur from Greek mythology. And yet, I was fully immersed in the story and understood everything that was happening. Even through the street slang and the colloquialisms, the truth of “Moonlight” shines through. So many movies are phony. Contrived developments, unbelievable love plots, rushed bits of exposition that tell you how characters feel instead of letting you decipher it for yourself."Moonlight" is real life. You watch it, and you just know it's happening just like this somewhere.

    At its core, “Moonlight” is a film about being trapped. Chiron is not athletic or a prodigy just waiting to be discovered, he’s shy, he’s just a regular person. Maybe he could become someone big if it wasn’t for the crippling world he’s living in. Do you want to know what racism is really like in the U. S. ? It’s not only about people being killed or about being turned down for jobs, it’s about children not receiving the opportunities they deserve and having to conform to stereotypes in order to survive. In doing so, they lose track of who they really are. It’s about the hypocrisy of poor neighborhoods, in which the ones who manage to get out do so at the expense of others and how, in everyone’s struggle for survival, love gets lost in the shuffle.

    “Moonlight” asks a lot of tough questions, but it doesn’t do so by getting in your face. It plays out in a fashion that’s so real – you forget you’re watching a movie. Then it ends and you’re stuck contemplating what it all meant, but you kind of already know. It brings it all to the surface in a manner that is so pure I can’t stop thinking about it. So many things could’ve gone wrong here. There are multiple child actors, the plot doesn’t follow a straightforward path, and there are large gaps of time between the three segments that could’ve made it confusing, but it isn’t. There’s an elegance in the way this story is told, the way it allows you to observe and discover things for yourself. When the end credits started rolling, I was very upset. I wish we could’ve seen at least another hours’ worth – and the film already clocks in at 110 minutes.

    I can’t stop thinking about “Moonlight”. Every aspect of it is firing on all cylinders but it’s likely to fly under many people’s radar because it isn’t a big story. Don’t make the mistake of missing out on this one while it’s still playing in the theater. Make a special trip, if only so you can tell people “Oh yeah, I saw it BEFORE it was cool”. “Moonlight” is a picture about a lot of things, among them a man’s struggle to find his identity. It’s one of the best films of the year. (Theatrical version on the big screen, November 13, 2016)

    10
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    adamwatchesmovies@  15.11.2016 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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