Moonlight casts a haunting glow

It is hard to know where to start with a film like Moonlight. For one thing, it is a story that you have seen before, the themes are universal after all, it’s just that I can’t recall this story ever told in such an accomplished or affecting way. In some ways, it is a mirror image of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood (2104), but much more grounded in the real world.

Boyhood famously filmed one group of actors for a fortnight every year for twelve years to create, in effect, a real time narrative. Moonlight tells the story of one young man of colour in Miami over a similar period but uses three separate actors to tell the story.

In our first encounter, we know him as Little (Alex Hibbert), when we next meet him he is Chiron (Ashton Sanders), and in our final encounter he is Black (Trevante Rhodes). These three stories form a triptych of self-discovery as Little responds to the influences of his life and  the circumstances that surround him, until he finally emerges as a young man who is certain of himself if nothing else in his life.

Along the way his encounters with key people in his life are beautifully captured by writer-director Barry Jenkins and an impeccably chosen cast.

The first section deals with Juan (Mahershala Ali) a drug dealer who provides an unlikely steadying influence in Little’s life. In a world of absent male authority figures it is Juan who gives Little some stability.  The second section deals with Chiron’s relationship with his drug-addicted mother Paula (Naomie Harris) and his burgeoning sexuality which finds expression in a tender moment with his friend Kevin (Jharrel Jerome).

When we meet Black, in what we might call episode three, he has been in prison – a result of his retaliation to bullying – but the memory of Kevin has sustained him. This final section is the most familiar, it’s a potentially trite story, but I genuinely struggle to think of having seen this scenario played out like this before. It is honest, affecting, profoundly moving and ultimately hopeful.

The performances throughout are excellent. Hibbert, Sanders, and Rhodes are marvellous as Little/Chiron/Black. Jenkins apparently didn’t let the three actors see each other’s performance, or even meet, so their individual takes on the character make for an interesting approximation of the ageing process and character development.

Mahershala Ali dominates the film; even though he only has a few scenes he is an actor of enormous power. And Naomie Harris is simply terrific in a performance which avoids all the clichés.

Moonlight’s greatest strength is the way it faces toxic racial stereotypes head on and deals with them in an uncompromising manner. These are the conditions that created Black but Jenkins, who comes from a similar area, never lets them define him.

Visually the film is magnificent. Cinematographer James Laxton’s use of colour, allied to Jenkins’ selection of music, brings an ethereal quality to parts of the story rendering it almost spiritual.

Moonlight is probably not going to win the Oscar, even though it should, but it is a film for the ages and, for me, one of the genuinely great films of the 21^st century. This is a film that will be talked about and will resonate long after its Oscar rivals are no more than trivia questions.