Moonlight
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Discussed in the Journal
JournalThe Silence Men Are Taught, and Who Pays for ItStoryline
The whole story, ending included.
Three chapters of a Black boy in Miami and the one night on a beach that he carries for twenty years.
In Liberty City, Miami, at the height of the crack epidemic, a withdrawn boy nicknamed Little hides from bullies in a crack house. Juan, an Afro-Cuban drug dealer, finds him, lets him spend the night with his girlfriend, Teresa, and takes him home to his mother, Paula. Juan becomes the nearest thing Chiron has to a father. One night he finds Paula smoking crack with one of his own customers; when he scolds her for neglecting her son, she answers that he sold it to her. Next day Chiron asks Juan what the word the other boys call him means. It is a word used to make gay people feel bad, Juan says, and there is nothing wrong with being gay. Then Chiron asks whether Juan sells drugs, and whether his mother uses them. Juan says yes to both, and hangs his head as the boy walks out.
As a teenager, Chiron is tormented by a bully, Terrel, and finds refuge at Teresa's house; Juan has died. Paula, deeper in her addiction, takes the money Teresa gives him. One night his friend Kevin, who has always called him Black, finds him on the beach near his home, and something passes between the two boys that Chiron will carry for years. Next day Terrel pressures Kevin into hitting Chiron in front of the others, and the other boys join in. Chiron will not name them. The following morning he walks into class, attacks Terrel and is taken away by the police.
Years later he calls himself Black: a muscular, guarded drug dealer in Atlanta. Kevin telephones out of the blue and invites him to Miami. Chiron first visits Paula, now living in a treatment centre, who apologises for failing him when he needed her most; they cry together. Then he drives south and finds Kevin cooking in a diner, out of prison and the father of a son. Kevin cooks for him and plays Barbara Lewis's 'Hello Stranger', the song that made him think of Chiron. At Kevin's flat, Chiron tells him that no one has touched him since that night on the beach. Kevin holds him. The last image is of Little on the beach at night.
Starring
Alex Hibbertas Chiron as a child, 'Little'
A silent, bullied boy in Liberty City whose mother is sinking into addiction and who finds a protector in a drug dealer.
Chiron as a child, 'Little'’s story
Chiron, nicknamed Little, is found hiding from bullies by Juan, who teaches him to swim and tells him to decide for himself who he will be. Then Chiron learns that Juan sells crack to his mother, Paula, and walks away. As a teenager he takes shelter at Teresa's and shares one night of tenderness on the beach with Kevin. The next day Kevin, pushed by Terrel, hits him until he cannot stand. He names no one, and next morning attacks Terrel with a chair and is taken away by the police. Ten years on he calls himself Black and deals drugs in Atlanta, living as Juan once did. He makes peace with Paula at her treatment centre, then drives to Miami and tells Kevin that no one has touched him since that night. Kevin holds him.
Ashton Sandersas Chiron as a teenager
The teenage Chiron, tormented at school and sheltered by Teresa, for whom one night with Kevin changes everything.
Trevante Rhodesas Chiron as an adult, 'Black'
The grown Chiron, a hardened drug dealer in Atlanta who has let no one near him since that night on the beach.
Mahershala Alias Juan
An Afro-Cuban drug dealer who takes the boy under his wing while selling crack to the boy's mother.
Naomie Harrisas Paula
Chiron's mother, lost to crack addiction through most of his childhood, who asks his forgiveness years later.
Paula’s story
Paula is raising Chiron alone and smoking crack. When Juan finds her getting high with one of his customers and scolds her for neglecting her son, she answers that he is the one who sold it to her, and asks whether he will explain to Chiron why the other boys torment him. Then she takes her anger out on the boy. By his teens she is selling sex to pay for her addiction and makes him hand over the money Teresa gives him. Years later, living in a treatment centre, she keeps calling him to visit. When he comes, she urges him to stop dealing, hears how she failed him, and apologises for not loving him when he needed it most. She loves him, she says, even if he does not love her back, and they cry together.
André Hollandas Kevin as an adult
Chiron's childhood friend, now a cook and a father in Miami, who calls him after years of silence.
Kevin as an adult’s story
Kevin is the one friend Chiron has as a boy, and the two of them play-fight. As a teenager he finds Chiron on the beach one night, calls him Black, the nickname he has always used, and they share a moment of tenderness. The next day Terrel pushes him into a hazing ritual, and Kevin hits Chiron until he cannot stand, then watches the police take him away. Ten years later, out of prison, a cook in a Miami diner and the father of a son, he telephones Chiron out of the blue. He cooks for him, plays the song that made him think of him, 'Hello Stranger', and admits that his life is not what he hoped, though he is happy. When Chiron says that no one has touched him since that night, Kevin holds him.
Why it matters
Barry Jenkins's film is about a boy learning what a man is supposed to be in a place that punishes softness, and about what the lesson costs him. Adapted from Tarell Alvin McCraney's unproduced, semi-autobiographical play, it follows one Black gay life from a neglected childhood in Miami's crack years to a guarded adulthood in which the gentlest thing he can say is that no one has touched him. It refuses easy villains: the man who protects the child sells drugs to his mother, and the mother who failed him asks his forgiveness. Made with an all-Black cast, it won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2017, the first LGBTQ film to do so. The question it leaves is quieter than its history: how much of a person can survive being hidden, and whether one night of tenderness is enough to live on.