Moonlight (2016 film)

Moonlight
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Barry Jenkins
Produced by	Adele Romanski Dede Gardner Jeremy Kleiner
Screenplay by	Barry Jenkins
Story by	Tarell Alvin McCraney
Starring	Trevante Rhodes André Holland Janelle Monáe Ashton Sanders Jharrel Jerome Naomie Harris Mahershala Ali
Music by	Nicholas Britell
Cinematography	James Laxton
Edited by	Nat Sanders Joi McMillon
Production company	A24 Plan B Entertainment Pastel Productions
Distributed by	A24
Release dates	September 2, 2016 (2016-09-02) (Telluride) October 21, 2016 (2016-10-21) (United States)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5 million[1]
Box office	$9.9 million[2]

Moonlight is a 2016 American drama film written and directed by Barry Jenkins, with a story by Tarell Alvin McCraney, and stars Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali.

Filmed in Miami, Florida beginning in 2015, the film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in 2016. Distributed by A24, the film received universal acclaim and has grossed $9 million.

Plot

i. Little

Shy and withdrawn Chiron (Alex Hibbert), dubbed "Little" for his meek personality and size, is chased into an abandoned motel by a pack of bullies. He is later found by Juan (Mahershala Ali), a crack dealer, who takes him to his house with his girlfriend Teresa (Janelle Monáe). After feeding him dinner and letting him spend the night, Chiron begins to open up to them. The next morning, Juan delivers Chiron back to his controlling and emotionally abusive mother Paula (Naomie Harris), who grounds him for not returning home the previous day. The only other person Chiron seems to find comfort and companionship in is his best friend Kevin (Jaden Piner), and their sexuality begins to bud when they stay after a dancing class during school to show their genitals to each other. Chiron and Juan continue spending more time together, the latter teaching Chiron how to swim while advising him to make his own path in life. One night, Juan notices one of his customers smoking crack in a nearby car with Paula. Juan berates Paula for smoking crack while Paula rebuffs him for selling it to her. Nonetheless ashamed, she takes out her frustrations on Chiron. The next morning, while talking with Juan and Teresa, Chiron admits his hatred for his mother. After confronting Juan about being a drug dealer - and consequently selling to his addicted mother - Chiron leaves.

ii. Chiron

Now a teenager, Chiron (now played by Ashton Sanders) is frequently bullied, harassed and openly threatened by one of his peers, Terrel (Patrick Decile), though he continues to remain close to Kevin (now played by Jharrel Jerome). Paula has since become addicted to crack, solicits herself, and physically coerces him to give her money given to him by Teresa, with whom he continues to spend nights over despite Juan now being deceased. On one particular night, he has a nightmare in which Kevin has sex with a woman in the backyard and he emotionlessly observes. After a particularly hard day after being taken advantage of by both his mom, Terrel, and his friends, he visits Kevin at the beach near his house. While smoking a blunt, Chiron and Kevin discuss their ambitions which ends with Kevin kissing Chiron and giving him a passionate handjob. The next morning, Terrel pressures Kevin into partaking in a hazing ritual, where he must beat someone of Terrel's choice until they refuse to get back up. Terrel orders Kevin to punch Chiron, and when Chiron refuses to stay down, causing Kevin to become increasingly reluctant with his blows, Terrel and others nearby stomp on Chiron before being chased away by a teacher. A social worker urges Chiron to reveal the identities of his attackers, but Chiron, feeling that reporting them will not solve anything, refuses to disclose their names. The next day, Chiron walks into class and smashes a wooden chair into Terrel's back and continues beating him until dragged away by several students and the teacher. Chiron is arrested, and as he is put into a police car, he glares at Kevin, who is standing by.

iii. Black

Now a hardened and tougher adult, Chiron (now played by Trevante Rhodes), going by the name "Black" (a new nickname given by Kevin as a teenager) is a drug dealer living outside Atlanta, having moved up since running drugs after leaving juvie, and now leads a similar life to the one Juan led, living in a large house and driving the same car. He has trouble sleeping and he gets frequent calls from Paula, asking him to visit. One night, he gets a call from Kevin (now played by André Holland), who asks Chiron to visit him in Miami where he works as a server and cook at a diner, also apologizing for his actions as a teenager, which causes Chiron to shed a tear. The next morning, Chiron wakes up to find that he had a wet dream. He drives down to Florida, meeting with his visibly frail mother first, who has become repentant for her addiction and Chiron's abusive upbringing. After a tense exchange, Chiron tearfully forgives his mother. He then travels to Miami to reunite with Kevin, but when they finally meet, Chiron is reluctant to speak to him or drink with Kevin, who himself is nonplussed by Chiron's new appearance and simple motivation for seeing him. Kevin allows Chiron to spend the night at his apartment, where Kevin confides that his life did not turn out the way that he had hoped, but he is still happy with his job and place in life, and Chiron admits to Kevin that he has not had relations with anyone but him since they last met. They physically reconcile shortly after. The movie then shows Little looking back at the camera while standing on the beach, bathed in blue moonlight, and then cuts off.^[3]

Cast

• Trevante Rhodes as Chiron / "Black"
  • Ashton Sanders as Teen Chiron
  • Alex Hibbert as Child Chiron / "Little"
• André Holland as Kevin
  • Jharrel Jerome as Teen Kevin
  • Jaden Piner as Child Kevin
• Janelle Monáe as Teresa
• Naomie Harris as Paula
• Mahershala Ali as Juan
• Patrick Decile as Terrel

Production

Development

After the release of his debut feature film, Medicine for Melancholy, in 2008, Jenkins wrote various screenplays, none of which entered production. In January 2013, producer Adele Romanski urged Jenkins to make a second film.^[4] The two brainstormed a few times a month through video-chat, with the goal of producing low budget “cinematic and personal” film.^[5] Jenkins was introduced to Tarell Alvin McCraney’s piece, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, through the Borscht arts collective in Miami.^[6] After discussions with McCraney,^[6] Jenkins wrote the first draft of the film in a month-long visit to Brussels,^[5][7] choosing to split the original piece into three chapters while keeping the homosexuality aspects to honor McCraney’s side of the story.^[6] Many characteristics of the film reflected both Jenkins and McCraney’s upbringings, since both grew up in Liberty Square and had mothers with drug addictions.^[4]

Jenkins looked for financing for the film during 2013, finding success after sharing the script with the executives of Plan B Entertainment at the year's Telluride Film Festival. Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B Entertainment became producers of the film,^[5] and A24 undertook to finance it and handle worldwide distribution, which marked the company's first production.^[8]

Casting

A different actor portrayed Chiron in each chapter of the film. Ashton Sanders was cast in the role of teen Chiron.^[9] Alex Hibbert and Jaden Piner were cast for the roles of child Chiron and child Kevin, respectively, in an open casting call in Miami.^[10][11] Trevante Rhodes originally auditioned for the role of Kevin, before he was cast as adult Chiron.^[12]

André Holland had previously acted in McCraney's plays, and had read the piece In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue a decade before the release of the film.^[13] Holland was attracted to the role of adult Kevin when later reading the piece, stating “[The piece] was the best thing I've ever read".^[14]

Naomie Harris was initially reluctant to portray Paula, stating that she did not want to play a stereotypical depiction of a black woman.^[15] When addressing her concerns, Jenkins emphasized the character’s representation of both his and McCraney’s mothers.^[13] Harris later commented that although she had previously vowed not to portray a crack addict, the film’s script and director’s tolerance appealed to her.^[4] In preparation for her role, Harris watched interviews of those with addiction to crack cocaine, and met with addicted women. She related her experiences of bullying to the addicts' attempts of escaping trauma.^[15][16]

Adele Romanski proposed for Juan to be played by Mahershala Ali, who had a role in one of her previously produced films, Kicks. Jenkins was hesitant when casting Ali, due to his role as Remy Danton in House of Cards; however, he was convinced after witnessing Ali’s acting range and understanding of his character.^[17] Ali considered the role an important opportunity to portray an African-American male mentor,^[18] and drew on his experiences of “[growing] up with a Juan”.^[17] Janelle Monáe was sent the script and immediately connected to her role as Teresa, commenting that she too had family members with similar struggles relating to drugs and sexual identity.^[5]

Filming

Filming began on October 14, 2015 in Miami, Florida.^[10][19] Whenever possible, the film was shot in locations where Jenkins grew up, such as Liberty Square.^[7] Naomie Harris shot all of her scenes over the course of three days.^[15][16]

Post-production

Jenkins worked with cinematographer James Laxton and colorist Alex Bickel to create the color grade for the film. In order to reflect the emotions of the film's events, the three decided to avoid the "documentary look" by increasing the contrast and saturation while retaining detail and color. The three chapters in the film were designed to imitate different film stocks. The first chapter emulated the Fuji film stock to emphasize the texture of skin tones. The second chapter imitated the Agfa film stock, which added cyan to the images, while the third chapter used a modified Kodak film stock.^[20]

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2016.^[21] It also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2016,^[22][23] the New York Film Festival on October 2, 2016,^[24][25] and the BFI London Film Festival on October 6, 2016.^[26] The film was released to select theaters on October 21, 2016^[27] before beginning a wide release on November 4, 2016.^[28][29]

Reception

Critical response

Moonlight received virtually unanimous praise from critics, particularly for its acting, direction, screenplay, cinematography, and score. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98%, based on 171 reviews, with an average rating of 8.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Moonlight uses one man's story to offer a remarkable and brilliantly crafted look at lives too rarely seen in cinema."^[30] On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 99 out of 100, based on 46 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".^[31] It is currently the fourth highest-rated film of all time on the site.^[32]

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter positively reviewed Moonlight after its premiere at the 2016 Telluride Film Festival. He praised the performances of the cast and the cinematography of James Laxton as "fluid and seductive, deceptively mellow, and shot with searing compassion." Rooney concluded by writing that Moonlight "will strike plangent chords for anyone who has ever struggled with identity, or to find connections in a lonely world."^[33] In a uniformly positive review for Time Out New York, Joshua Rothkopf gave Moonlight a full five stars out of five, praising Barry Jenkins' direction and hailing the film as "without a doubt, the reason we go to the movies: to understand, to come closer, to ache, hopefully with another."^[34]

Brian Formo of Collider.com gave Moonlight a 'B' grade rating, applauding the performances and direction but contending that the film "is more personal and important than it is great."^[35] Similarly, Jake Cole of Slant Magazine praised the acting, but criticized the screenplay, and argued that "so much of the film feels old-hat."^[36] In a review for The Verge, Tasha Robinson lamented the plot details omitted between the film's three acts, but wrote that "what does make it to the screen is unforgettable."^[37]

While discussing the film after its screening at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times described Moonlight as "achingly romantic and uncommonly wise", opining the film to be an early Oscar contender. Chang further wrote: "[Barry Jenkins] made a film that urges the viewer to look past Chiron’s outward appearance and his superficial signifiers of identity, climbing inside familiar stereotypes in order to quietly dismantle them from within... [Moonlight] doesn't say much. It says everything."^[38]

Accolades

References

External links

• Official website
• Moonlight at the Internet Movie Database
• Moonlight at Box Office Mojo
• Moonlight at Rotten Tomatoes
• Moonlight at Metacritic