A great little film

This afternoon I saw the movie Moonlight. It got a lot of favorable press and Metacritic gave it a 99 out of 100. I’m not sure it is that good, though it was certainly a great little film. The story is about Chiron (I heard it pronounced as Sharrone), a black guy. In the first chapter of the movie he is about 9 years old. He’s picked on a lot by other boys, he has a druggie mother, and he finds refuge, for a while, with Juan and Teresa. In chapter 2 Chiron is now 16, and the harassment from the other boys gets intense. He also begins to figure out he is gay and begins a relationship with his friend Kevin. In the third chapter Chiron is now mid-twenties. He’s beefed up and now working the streets. He reconnects with Kevin.

A reviews read implied that in the third chapter Chiron was dealing with trying to be gay in the macho black culture, with a lot of emotional baggage from all that bullying. I didn’t see this. His actions were a lot more tender than I would have thought, not violent at all. In addition, I didn’t see a lot of internal conflict.

I thought the acting by all actors was quite good. There is talk of nominations and awards for this movie. I do have one complaint. Throughout most of the movie the background was quite a bit out of focus. We could see the central characters just fine, but not anything else. I’m sure that was an intentional decision because in most other movies the background is in focus or pretty close to it. But that is a small complaint in an otherwise great little film.