Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Moonlight

Ah, there. A movie that's not like a salad you consume because it's good for you, but like braised Belgian endive, bitter & serious, with a little melty sweetness.

Moonlight––its title comes from the play, "In moonlight black boys look blue"–– is about a black boy growing up gay in crime ridden Miami. Its tenderness is as hard to take as its brutality.
   
Representation of black lives matters, but it's not a message movie like Hidden Figures; you would want it no matter its nutritional content. As a film, it reminded me of Force Majeur (2014), by Swedish director Ruben Östlund who, like Moonlight's director Barry Jenkins, uses the medium to tell a massive story delicately.

The film's music is part of its complexity:
From "Every Nigger Is a Star" (1974!) to a cello piece I thought was Bach, but is by the contemporary composer who scored the film, Nicholas Britell.



The main character Chiron (pronounced Shyrone) is played by three actors: the boy Alex R. Hibbert, teenager Ashton Sanders, and as a grown man, Trevante Rhodes. Also, above, Mahershala Ali as Juan teaching Chiron to swim, and Jharrel Jerome as teenage Kevin (white T-shirt).
 Interview about scoring the movie with composer Britell here.
Soundtrack here

Moonlight trailer