Toronto Film Festival 2016: Moonlight, review – Buzz of a masterpiece

Moonlight is mesmerically, sometimes swooningly, shot and scored, and well-acted all round too, says David Sexton
Powerful: the theme of Moonlight is troubled identity
David Sexton15 September 2016

Only writer/director Barry Jenkins's second feature, Moonlight is the buzziest film at this year's Toronto film festival. It's the story of a troubled African-American boy growing up in drug-ridden Miami, told in three acts, the protagonist, Chiron, played at different ages by three different actors. They do not much resemble one another – but so powerful is our identification, so challenged is this boy's identity, that not only does that not matter, it works marvellously for the film.

In Part 1, "Little" (Alex Hibbert), a silent, gawky, big-eyed 10 year-old, estranged from his mother (Naomie Harris), a crack addict, is mentored by a surprisingly kind drugs dealer, Juan (Mahershala Ali), who takes him for swimming lessons and answers him thoughtfully when he asks, "What's a faggot?", having already been singled out for abuse by his peers.

In Part 2, Chiron (Ashton Sanders) is an even more etiolated high-school kid, now severely tormented by his strutting classmates but he tentatively forms a relationship with his one childhood friend Kevin (now played by Jharrel Jerome), evolving into a tender sex scene on the beach, before the bullies force Kevin to beat Chiron – and he in turn finally resorts to savage violence.

In Part 3, some ten years later, "Black", Chiron (Trevante Rhodes) has, after prison, transformed himself into a hugely muscular drugdealer, working the streets of Atlanta, wearing gold grillz.

One night he gets an apologetic call from Kevin (Andre Holland, this time), now running a diner, and they meet again after so many years – and melt into one another, Chiron, his defences dissolving, confessing nobody else has ever touched him since.

Moonlight is mesmerically, sometimes swooningly, shot and scored, and well-acted all round too. It is bound to gain traction in this year's awards season, after last year's embarrassments.

Although all about issues of troubled identity, it is not about inter-racial conflict, being set entirely within the black community, without a single white speaking part. Finally.

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