Moonlight (2016) Rewind

Great art is born of juxtaposition; which is to say, great art imitates life.

Many action directors have the right convictive temperament to produce an edge-of-seat car chase but not so many possess the sentimentality (or care of sentiment) to infuse that chase with a sense of meaning. Many romance-genre filmmakers understand the emotive complexities of a broken-heart but not so many have the gruffness to balance out the inevitable melodrama that comes with such territory.

To create something that feels authentic, you must embrace life in all its complexity, you must approach your subject matter with a sense of deep impartiality and you must show a willingness to recognise both the brutality and the beauty of the subject matter. It is rare to encounter a director who is capable of producing such juxtaposition. Fortunately, one such director is working today and, in 2016, he presented his magnus opus; a work so carefully brutal, so viciously beautiful that you might wonder whether you are watching a film or reality itself.

Without a doubt, Moonlight (2016) is the best feature of its year. It is a coming-of-age LGBT drama that is concerned, in theme, with a small minority experience (gay, African-American gang members) but should be considered as a wider reflection of the human experience.

Barry Jenkins directs his subject matter with such acuity that you will smell, feel and hear every sensation along with his protagonist, Chiron.

The film is gorgeously shot on an Arri Alexa digital camera with Cinemascope lens, then delicately enhanced in a high-detail, high-contrast and highly-saturated colour grade. The aim, here, is to avoid the 'documentary' aesthetic but, still, to convey a sense of tangibility. It succeeds as a hyper-real, hyper-stylised experience, drawing on a neon colour-palette and often exploding with colour.

The script is more lit-fic than commercial drama. It does not concern itself with plot, as much as it does with effect. These are completely believable, naturalistic characters who are conflicted in a way that only real people could be. Mahershala Ali is a stunningly affectionate, yet brutal 'Juan'. André Holland is a charming, yet gentle 'Kevin'. And in a scene-stealing performance, Naomie Harris is a terrifying, heart-breaking 'Paula' (Chiron's mother). It is not a fully star-studded cast and yet I cannot recall a more evocative collection of performances in recent memory. You will watch their characters wrestle with internal conflictions and anticipate the relevancy of these conflictions in the lives of the people they represent. The film is based on a semi-autobiographical play, In Moonlight, Black Boys Look Blue. The writer, Tarell Alvin McCraney, based his work in response to his own mother's battle with AIDS.

As the story has passed from one pair of hands to another and another again so has it inherited the thoughts and emotions of each of its tellers. Juxtaposition. The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect. The reason why a film about physical and emotional abuse, about the crashing waves of identity and sexuality, can be both sobering and utterly, utterly exhilarating.

★★★★★