Moonlight (2016 film)

i. Little

In Liberty City, Miami, Cuban drug dealer Juan finds Chiron, a withdrawn child who goes by the nickname "Little", hiding from a pack of bullies in an abandoned crackhouse. He allows Chiron to spend the night with him and his girlfriend Teresa before returning him to his emotionally abusive mother Paula the next day.

Chiron continues to spend time with Juan, who teaches him how to swim and advises him to make his own path in life. One night, Juan sees Paula smoking crack with one of his customers. Juan berates her for her addiction while Paula rebukes him for selling crack to her in the first place. Paula implies she knows her son gets beaten up by his peers for being gay by referencing "the way he walks."

The next day, Chiron admits to Juan and Teresa that he hates his mother before asking what "faggot" means. Juan replies it is okay to be gay and that he should not allow other people to mock him for it. After asking Juan whether or not he sold drugs to Paula, Chiron leaves as Juan hangs his head in shame.

ii. Chiron

Now a teenager, Chiron juggles avoiding his classmate Terrel, who frequently bullies him, and spending time with Teresa, who has lived alone since Juan's death. Paula has become addicted to crack and prostitutes herself to support her addiction, frequently coercing Chiron into giving her money that Teresa lends him.

One night, Chiron has a dream in which his friend Kevin has sex with a woman in Teresa's backyard. On another night, Kevin visits Chiron at the beach near his house. While smoking a blunt, the two discuss their ambitions and the nickname, "Black," that Kevin has given Chiron. After a charged moment, they kiss, and Kevin masturbates Chiron.

The next morning, Terrel manipulates Kevin into participating in a hazing ritual. Kevin reluctantly punches Chiron until he is unable to get up before Terrel and several others stomp on him. Chiron later meets with a social worker, who urges him to reveal the identities of his attackers. He refuses, however, as he believes that reporting them will not solve anything. The next day, Chiron smashes a chair into Terrel's back. As the police arrest Chiron, he glares at a helpless Kevin.

iii. Black

Now going by the nickname "Black", an adult Chiron deals drugs in Atlanta. He receives frequent calls from Paula, who asks him to visit her at the drug treatment center where she now lives. One night, he receives a call from Kevin, who apologizes for his behavior while in high school and invites Chiron to visit him in Miami. The following day, he wakes up after dreaming about Kevin to find that he has had a wet dream.

While visiting his mother, Chiron admits that he feels remorse for his lack of empathy towards her. Paula eventually apologizes for having been a bad mother and not supporting him when he needed her. Chiron forgives her. He then travels to Miami and reunites with Kevin, who now waits tables and serves as a chef at a diner. He prepares a "chef's special," but Chiron is reluctant to speak or drink with Kevin.

Kevin tells Chiron that he had a child with an old girlfriend but the relationship didn't work out and he is fulfilled by his role as a father. Kevin confesses that he is surprised by Chiron's new athletic appearance, occupation, and motivation for seeing him. After dinner, the two drive to Kevin's home. Kevin tells Chiron that, although his life may not have turned out the way he hoped, he is still happy. Chiron admits he has never been intimate with another person since their encounter on the beach. As Kevin comforts him, Chiron thinks back to his time as a child on the beach - who turns back to face the camera, before the screen cuts to black.

Cast

Development

In 2003, Tarell Alvin McCraney wrote the semi-autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue to cope with his mother's death from AIDS. The theater piece was shelved for about a decade before it served as the basis for Moonlight.

After the release of his debut feature film Medicine for Melancholy in 2008, Barry Jenkins wrote various screenplays, none of which entered production. In January 2013, producer Adele Romanski urged Jenkins to make a second film. The two brainstormed a few times a month through video-chat, with the goal of producing a low-budget "cinematic and personal" film. Jenkins was introduced to McCraney’s piece, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, through the Borscht arts collective in Miami. After discussions with McCraney, Jenkins wrote the first draft of the film in a month-long visit to Brussels.

Although the original play contained three parts, they ran simultaneously so that the audience would experience a day in the life of Little, Chiron and Black concurrently. In fact, it is not made clear that the characters are the same person until half-way through the play. Jenkins instead chose to split the three parts of the original piece into distinct chapters and to focus on Chiron's story from the perspective of an ally.

The result was a screenplay that reflected the similar upbringings of Jenkins and McCraney. The character Juan was based on the father of McCraney’s brother, who was also a childhood "defender" of McCraney, as Juan was for Chiron. Likewise, Paula was a depiction of Jenkins' and McCraney's mothers, who both struggled with drug addictions. McCraney and Jenkins also both grew up in Liberty Square, a primary location of the film.

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. While A24 undertook to finance it and handle worldwide distribution, which marked the company's first production.

Casting

Different actors portrayed Chiron and Kevin in each chapter of the film. Ashton Sanders was cast in the role of teen Chiron. Alex Hibbert and Jaden Piner were cast for the roles of child Chiron and child Kevin, respectively, in an open casting call in Miami. Trevante Rhodes originally auditioned for the role of Kevin, before he was cast as adult Chiron.

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. Holland was attracted to the role of adult Kevin when later reading the script of the film, stating, "[The script] was the best thing I've ever read".

Naomie Harris was initially reluctant to portray Paula, stating that she did not want to play a stereotypical depiction of a black woman. When addressing her concerns, Jenkins emphasized the character’s representation of both his and McCraney's mothers. 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. 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.

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. Ali considered the role an important opportunity to portray an African-American male mentor, and drew on his experiences of "[growing] up with a Juan". 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.

Filming

Filming began on October 14, 2015, in Miami, Florida. After scouting for locations in Miami with Romanski, Jenkins made an effort to film in locations where he previously lived. Liberty Square, a housing project located in the neighborhood of Liberty City, was chosen as one of the primary locations as both McCraney and Jenkins grew up in the area. The film was shot undisturbed since Jenkins had relatives living in the area, though the cast and crew had police escorts. Naomie Harris later reflected:

It was the first time someone had come to their community and wanted to represent it onscreen, and since Barry Jenkins had grown up in that area, there was this sense of pride and this desire to support him. You felt this love from the community that I've never felt in any other location, anywhere in the world, and it was so strange that it happened in a place where people were expecting the complete opposite.

During filming, Jenkins made sure that the three actors for Chiron did not meet each other until after filming to avoid any imitations of one another. Consequently, Rhodes, Sanders, and Hibbert filmed in separate two-week periods. Mahershala Ali frequently flew to Miami on consecutive weekends to film during the production of other projects. Naomie Harris shot all of her scenes in three days without rehearsals, while André Holland filmed the totality of his scenes in five. The film was shot in a period of twenty five days.

Jenkins worked with cinematographer and longtime friend James Laxton, who previously shot Medicine for Melancholy. The two chose to avoid the "documentary look" and thus shot the film using widescreen CinemaScope on an Arri Alexa digital camera, which better rendered skin tone. With colorist Alex Bickel, they further achieved this by creating a color grade that increased the contrast and saturation while preserving the detail and color. As a result, the three chapters of the film were designed to imitate different film stocks. The first chapter emulated the Fuji film stock to intensify the cast's 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.

Editing

The film was edited in Los Angeles by Joi McMillon and Nat Sanders, former university schoolmates of Jenkins. Sanders was responsible for editing the first and second chapters. McMillon was responsible for the third act which included the "diner scene," a favorite of the cinematographer Laxton.

Music

The score of Moonlight was composed by Nicholas Britell. Britell applied the chopped and screwed technique from hip hop remixes to orchestral music, producing a "fluid, bass-heavy score". The soundtrack, released on October 21, 2016, consists of eighteen original songs by Britell along with others by Goodie Mob, Boris Gardiner, and Barbara Lewis. A chopped and screwed version was released by OG Ron C and DJ Candlestick of The Chopstars.

Themes

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, lists "love, sex, survival, mothers and father figures" among its themes, particularly the lack thereof in the latter. However, A. O. Scott of The New York Times cites the character Juan as an example of how the film "evokes clichés of African-American masculinity in order to shatter them." In his review in Variety, Peter Debruge suggests that the film demonstrates that the African American identity is more complex than has been portrayed in films of the past. For example, while Juan plays the role of Little's defender and protector, he is also part of the root cause of at least some of the hardship the young boy endures.

A major theme of Moonlight is the black male identity and its interactions with sexual identity. The film takes a form similar to a triptych in order to explore the path of a man from a neglected childhood, through an angry adolescence, to self-realization and fulfillment in adulthood. According to Deborah Orr, it shines a light on the "negative aspects of masculinity."

Marketing

The film's poster reflects its triptych structure, blending the three actors portraying Chiron into a single face. The producers employed no extra marketing for the film; interest in the film grew naturally up until the Academy Awards, induced by the critical reviews. The trailer for the film was released on August 11 in time for festival season. Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times referred to it "as one of the most anticipated films for fall".

On February 27, the day after the Academy Awards, Calvin Klein released an underwear advertising campaign featuring four of the male actors in the film. On March 7, Beijing-based streaming video service iQiyi announced that it has acquired the rights to stream to film in China. The film is also available in home media format through iTunes and DVD.

Box office

The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2016. It also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2016, the New York Film Festival on October 2, 2016, and the BFI London Film Festival on October 6, 2016. The film was released to select theaters on October 21, 2016, before beginning a wide release on November 18, 2016. The full UK cinema release was on February 17, 2017.

The film originally played in four theaters in its limited October 21, 2016 release, grossing $402,072 (a per-theater average $100,519, the highest of 2016). The film's theater count peaked at 650 in its wide opening on November 18, 2016 before expanding to 1,014 theaters in February. After the Oscars ceremony, A24 announced that the film would be played at 1,564 theaters. In the weekend following its Oscar wins the film grossed $2.5 million, up 260% from its previous week and marking the highest-grossing weekend of its entire theatrical release. It was also a higher gross than the previous two Best Picture winners, Spotlight ($1.8 million) and Birdman ($1.9 million), had in their first weekend following the Academy Awards.

As of March 12, 2017, Moonlight has grossed $27 million in the United States and Canada and $23.1 million in other territories for a worldwide gross of $50.1 million, against a production budget of $1.5 million.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 273 reviews, with an average rating of 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." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 99 out of 100, based on 51 critics, indicating "universal acclaim." On both websites, it was the highest scoring film released in 2016.

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

Brian Formo of Collider.com gave Moonlight an 'A-' grade rating, applauding the performances and direction but contending that the film "is more personal and important than it is great." Similarly, Jake Cole of Slant Magazine praised the acting, but criticized the screenplay, and argued that "so much of the film feels old-hat." 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."

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."

Writing for The London Review of Books in February 2017, Michael Wood characterized the film as a study of an inherited intergenerational tragedy. He wrote: "[By the end of the film] there are still ten minutes of late Ingmar Bergman to go. The film keeps showing us Chiron's handsome, inscrutable face. The silence doesn't tell us anything, it just asks us to feel sorry for him... All is not lost, though, because as we gaze at Chiron, we can think of something else: his resemblance to Juan (his father figure). Does it mean that Juan was once a Chiron ... Not quite that perhaps, but the last shot of the film is of the young Chiron sitting on the beach ... looking out at the ocean ... His wide eyes suggest all the desolation and promise that Juan saw in him at the beginning. If we started again, would things be different?"

In contrast, Melanie McDonagh of The Spectator called the film "boring" and "utterly pointless." Camilla Long of The Times wrote that the film's "story has been told countless times, against countless backdrops", and that the film is not "relevant" to a predominantly "straight, white, middle class" audience. Long was criticized by users on Twitter for the review, and was accused of being homophobic and racist in her writing. While Catherine Shoard defended her by pointing out that "critics’ opinions are subjective, and are supposed to be." However, David McAlmont referred to Long's review as "not a review... [but] a waspish response to other reviews."

Top ten lists

Moonlight was listed on numerous critics' top ten lists.

Accolades

At the 74th Golden Globe Awards, Moonlight received six nominations, the second highest of all film nominees. The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, with additional nominations for five more: Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (for Ali), Best Supporting Actress (for Harris), Best Screenplay (for Jenkins) and Best Original Score (for Britell).

Moonlight received four nominations at the 70th British Academy Film Awards: Best Film, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Best Original Screenplay.

Moonlight received eight nominations at the 89th Academy Awards, the second highest of all nominees, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (for Ali), Best Supporting Actress (for Harris) and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film won three awards: for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. At the ceremony, presenters Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty read La La Land as the winner of Best Picture. Beatty later stated that he had mistakenly been given the duplicate Best Actress envelope, for which Emma Stone had won for her role in La La Land several minutes prior. When the mistake was realized, La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz came forward to announce Moonlight as the correct winner.

Because the film's screenplay was based on a play that had not previously been produced or published, different awards have had different rules about whether it qualified in the original or adapted screenplay categories. It was classified as an original screenplay by both the Writers Guild of America Awards and the BAFTAs, but was ruled as an adapted screenplay according to Academy Award rules.

Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon were nominated for Best Film Editing, making McMillon the first black woman to earn an Academy Award nomination in film editing. It is also the first LGBT film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.