Moonlight, the Movie
**Spoiler Alert
Quite impulsively, I sat down to watch the movie, Moonlight on the same night in India when Oscars will take place in the US.
The slow narrative of the movie into three parts, Little, Chiron and Black explores universal themes of identity, sexuality, family and masculinity. The tenderness of the movie expressed through the eloquent silence of the central character and the pathos in his eyes will linger on long after the movie is over.
Chiron is shown as a little thin boy who grows into a lanky teenager and then into an all muscled up man. Chiron however, stays the same inside. A shy child who is bullied into this teenager who is ruthlessly shamed for being gay. Though Chiron never mentions it, Kevin, his closest friend knows it all. It’s beautiful to see Chiron whose innocence doesn't miss the act that his young single mom is heavily into drugs and that Chiron’s father figure Juan is a drug peddler. Chiron has kind people in his lives in the form of Juan and his girlfriend and Kevin but Chiron is little in every sense since his world is limited by a lack of self expression.
The movie is interspersed with beautiful dialogues where the lessons of life trickle to Chiron sometimes from Juan, sometimes from his mother and sometimes from Kevin. Chiron is not weak as he holds his feelings even when Kevin punches his face as he is bullied by boys calling him gay. Chiron loves Kevin summarizing his feelings at the end when he says that Kevin is the only guy who touched him and was the only man ever. Love takes a backseat to this profound friendship bringing memories of Brokeback Mountain. Only Moonlight takes it to new dizzy heights with wonderful acting and controlled direction. Violence doesn’t make you a man and the demands of conformity sucks out the human connection. Moonlight explores this truth sincerely showing how compassion and humanity can come from perfect strangers, from outside your family to change you or make you what you are.
I was overjoyed that the Oscars honoured this movie with the best screenplay and best movie awards over La La Land.