Moonlight Movie Review: Fictional Depiction Of Society

MOONLIGHT MOVIE REVIEW:
Fiction Depiction of Society
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MOONLIGHT MOVIE REVIEW: Fictional Depiction of Society
In a gist, Barry Jenkin’s second feature film Moonlight could probably be described as a movie about a gay African-American man, growing up in a poor environment and having to deal with possible conflicts that arise in his life as he tries to figure out what it takes to be a “strong man.” That would possibly be accurate enough. Along with the very familiar story line when including issues about being black in America, the movie can also be described as one revolving around drug abuse, racial discrimination and bullying in schools. But these descriptions are simply scratching at the surface of the movie, there is more to just these very familiar themes that we have been exposed to over and over again and a storyline that we probably know all too well.
The movie is based on the play by Tarell Alvin McCraney entitled “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue,” and both touch the audience not just by the all too familiar plot, but most importantly by bringing its audience and viewers along a very raw and personal journey. This film allows the viewers to feel and understand how it is to be the person who directly experiences these very recognizable issues – experiencing it from the inside, looking out instead of being spectators who see it from the observer`s eyes from the outside looking in. We first start this review with the brief summary of the film, then try to incorporate its relevance to our present society’s pressing issues and end with my own review and take on the film’s significance as a piece of literature that aims to give more awareness to a society that has probably gone too numb to seeing these repetitive information through different media types.
The movie is divided into three segments, representing three chapters in the life of the young African-American boy protagonist named Chiron, who was also introduced as “Little” in this first chapter. The movie opens up with Chiron – played by Alex Hibbert – escaping from his abusive and drug-addicted mother, Paula – played by Naomie Harris. Juan (Mahershala Ali), a drug dealer finds the frightened Little inside a broken down deserted motel and after finding out that the young Little has been bullied in school brought Little to his girlfriend Teresa’s (Janelle Monae) house.
The couple ends up becoming fond of the young Little and eventually served as his counselor, even with Little’s mother constantly being hostile to them. During the first chapter of the film, the movie proceeds with such a somber pace with a lot of emphasis on the destructive nature of drugs, not only in the life of Little’s mother, but also in Juan’s as we see later on in the final segment that he has actually died.
The second segment is about Chiron’s teenage life where now he is being referred to by his real name. Still very reserved and unsociable, he is constantly being bullied by other teenagers who thinks his aloof personality makes him more vulnerable to sneers and goading and also here we see how his peers start to have an idea of Chiron’s homosexuality. Still being badgered with his addicted mother, Jenkins also shows a part of Chiron that is exposed to bullying. This issue is also very true of teenagers in the African-American communities nowadays.
As the movie progresses further into the life of the teenage Chiron, we see a build up in the story as he gets back together with his old childhood friend named Kevin. Kevin guides Chiron to a homosexual encounter on the beach. Conflict and the drama start to arise in the relationship between the two as Kevin enters into a hazing ritual, and in order to accommodate the requests of the bullies in their high school, Kevin was forced to betray Chiron by belting at him for numerous times. Being unable to contain himself any longer, Chiron resorted into violence and slams a chair over a bully right in front of his high school class. He was strained and taken by the police due to his reckless action and was placed in a juvenile detention center for a while.
The final segment of the movie is set after ten years from the end of the second segment, and here we see Chiron now carrying the name “Black”, a nickname given to him by Kevin while they were still in high school. The third segment opens with a lot of uncertainties and would lead to having the audience know close to nothing about this older Black character. The only clear information we get about Black is that he is now a desensitized drug dealer living in Atlanta.
The third segment story starts to evolve deeper as we see Black receiving a phone call from Kevin, who was calling from Miami where he now works as a cook. Black decided to visit Kevin in Miami but before doing so he made a quick stop at a nursing home where his mother is now residing. In this part of the movie we see a decently heart tugging scene as his mother begs him to forgive her for all her past wrong doings towards him. This scene is heart wrenching as we see how, despite all the hurts his mother caused him, he was still able to acknowledge that she is his mother and tries to provide comfort in showing that he has not forgotten that.
The film ends at the restaurant where Kevin works and as Black joins him there for a conversation and catching up. Kevin has had a relationship with a woman and has a child with this woman, which he is now separated from. From their conversations, Black shared that he has pretty much been out of any serious relationship since Kevin. At this point, Jenkins chose to let the rest of the story fall into the assumptions of the audience. Although this could possibly be pretty much implied, as we see that Black has accepted Kevin’s invitation to spend the night and the scene pretty much shows how both obviously still have feelings for each other.
It is in the third chapter where possibly most critics would be too harsh on the film. First of all, the Black character was not well created. The movie fell short in showing how Black came to be and what experiences may have led to this character. The viewers can’t help but think that the movie seemed to be cut off prematurely, or that there simply was not enough time to show the rest of the story in this part. The dramatic encounter with the mother in a nursing home was enough to build up the anticipation for a more satisfying ending, but instead the reconciliation between Kevin and Chorin, combined with tender feelings seem to be just short of what could be considered as sporadic conclusion. The last half hour of the movie seems very predictable and at some point leaves the viewers with less anticipation for the outcome of the characters.
The third segment may appear to be a sort of disappointment, especially in comparison to the first two segments where both appear to have very raw scenes and performances. Perhaps it was how Jenkins wanted his movie to end, showing the simplicity of it all instead of all the highlights. Perhaps the lack of trigger points is in itself a statement that says the highlights of one’s life could be as simple and tender as a reconciliation encounter that is not too unpredictable nor unfamiliar. The lack of an elaborate finale nor one that would not leave us guessing, is what some critics would argue as the points that make Moonlight a simple yet impactful film – in a way it is unique in that manner. Just because the meaning of the ending escapes the viewers, this certainly does not imply it is unimportant or invalid.
The story of Chorin in Moonlight is one that perhaps the modern society is already well acquainted with. With the African American youth being more likely to be living in areas of low-income segregated urban neighborhoods than the urban white population ADDIN CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "DOI" : "10.1542/peds.2014-1395", "ISBN" : "1098-4275", "ISSN" : "1098-4275", "PMID" : "25311604", "abstract" : "OBJECTIVE This study was designed to determine whether living in a neighborhood in which poverty levels increase across adolescence is associated with heightened levels of allostatic load (AL), a biological composite reflecting cardiometabolic risk. The researchers also sought to determine whether receipt of emotional support could ameliorate the effects of increases in neighborhood poverty on AL. METHODS Neighborhood concentrations of poverty were obtained from the Census Bureau for 420 African American youth living in rural Georgia when they were 11 and 19 years of age. AL was measured at age 19 by using established protocols for children and adolescents. When youth were 18, caregivers reported parental emotional support and youth assessed receipt of peer and mentor emotional support. Covariates included family poverty status at ages 11 and 19, family financial stress, parental employment status, youth stress, and youths' unhealthful behaviors. RESULTS Youth who lived in neighborhoods in which poverty levels increased from ages 11 to 19 evinced the highest levels of AL even after accounting for the individual-level covariates. The association of increasing neighborhood poverty across adolescence with AL was not significant for youth who received high emotional support. CONCLUSIONS This study is the first to show an association between AL and residence in a neighborhood that increases in poverty. It also highlights the benefits of supportive relationships in ameliorating this association.", "author" : [ { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Brody", "given" : "Gene H", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Lei", "given" : "Man-Kit", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Chen", "given" : "Edith", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Miller", "given" : "Gregory E", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" } ], "container-title" : "Pediatrics", "id" : "ITEM-1", "issue" : "5", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2014" ] ] }, "page" : "e1362-8", "title" : "Neighborhood poverty and allostatic load in African American youth.", "type" : "article-journal", "volume" : "134" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=89a68fc8-aac6-4749-a328-0e3780cfc93a" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "formattedCitation" : "(Brody, Lei, Chen, & Miller, 2014)", "plainTextFormattedCitation" : "(Brody, Lei, Chen, & Miller, 2014)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Brody, Lei, Chen, & Miller, 2014)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" }(Brody, Lei, Chen, & Miller, 2014) and this demographic is disproportionately overrepresented in areas where there are high incidences of violence, crime and drug abuse. Experts have argued that living in such impoverished neighborhoods where the locations are segregated by race could unfavorably affect the child’s growth and development into adolescence, particularly in his or her ability to adjust to adolescent changes and may psych...