One of the year's best

Barry Jenkins (Medicine for Melancholy) directs Moonlight with a fresh sense of romance and what it takes to withstand sustained hardship. Divided into three parts of one young man’s formative years, a complicated portrait emerges of poverty, discrimination and sexual identity. This introverted boy who grows into an impulsive man is alternatively called Little (Alex R. Hibbert), Chiron (Ashton Sanders) and Black (Trevante Rhodes). He is largely alone as a child until Juan (Mahershala Ali of Netflix’s House of Cards) provides him with the nurturing and guidance that his life has lacked. His drug addled mother (Naomie Harris) loves him but leaves him to fend for himself. It’s no surprise that he doesn’t talk very much in order to keep up a hard phacade against bullies and the abusive taunts of his mother. What Juan gives Chiron is self-worth, an invaluable asset to survive the cards he’s been dealt. Ali is joined by a partner (singer Janelle Monae) in giving him a reprieve from his daily suffering. That Juan is a drug dealer is just part of his identity- he can be a surrogate father, a loving boyfriend and someone who participates in the ugly underbelly of society. http://www.cutprintfilm.com/reviews/moonlight/