Moonlight - Okay

Stars:  Mahershala Ali, Shariff Earp, Duan Sanderson
Run Time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

​Stuck in a not so good part of Miami, Chiron tries to live his life. The film starts off when he is a little boy. He is being picked on by the other children and a nice man, Juan (Mahershala Ali) finds him stowed away in an abandoned apartment. Being a not so talkative little boy, Chiron does not tell Juan where he lives until the next morning. After taking the boy back home, we are introduced to his mother, who we later find out is buying drugs from Juan. Next we flash forward to when Chiron is a teenager in high school. The same boys are still picking on him and his mother is even deeper into drug use than before. Chiron tries to keep to himself as best he can. One day, he finally discovers who he is. His only friend in school, Kevin, is pressured by the others to beat up Chiron. Battered and Bloody, Chiron has revenge on the mind. The next day he walks into the school and hits the person that pressured his friend into hurting him. Obviously, he is arrested.
 
Finally, we flash forward again to a time when Chiron is a young man. He is changed completely: fit, dressed to fit in, and a head honcho. Him and his mother have moved to Atlanta to get away from all that happened, he was able to start over and his mother was able to check herself into rehab. Still, Chiron is struggling to be who he feels like inside. One night, the friend from high school calls him up and memories pop back into Chiron’s head. He decides to drive back to Miami and catch up with Kevin.

• I loved the part where he storms through the high school with the intention to retaliate against the boy that has been bullying him… except for the part where he’s pushing the door open and the next camera cut has him pulling it.
• I hated his teeth while he was an adult. Let me see them GRILLZ.
• I loved the score of this film. From the instrumental pieces while his mother is yelling at him as a little boy to the rap music playing when he is an adult.
• I loved the part when he brushes his hair just before going into the Diner to see Kevin… like he has hair to brush. I just thought it was funny.
• I liked that they drank wine out of plastic cups.. my kind of people.
• I hated how it just kind of ended.

​Not knowing much about this film before watching it, I was a tad surprised by the intentions. I’m glad it wasn’t another one of those African American’s overcoming the white segregation movies. Those movies are great, don’t get me wrong, I’ve just seen a lot of them so far this month and need a break. This movie is solely about Chiron, his life in a bad neighborhood with a druggie mother, and his self-discovery and how he dealt with it. Honestly, it caught me off guard (his self-discovery) and the scene at the beach too. It was an interesting watch and not completely boring, but not exciting either. I’m glad that Chiron stood up to the bully, even if it did land him in jail. And I’m glad that his mother finally got help. Overall this movie was pretty good, I’ll give it an “okay” rating because I probably wouldn’t watch it again. It was nicely directed and as I mentioned the score was great to me. I hated how it just kind of ended, I wasn’t sure if he was able to accept himself and stop trying to be someone else.
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