Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight is a masterful piece of media we’ll never shut up about. The movie was released in 2016 and had one of the most memorable and tearful Oscar wins, especially after winning Best Picture with an all-Black cast. But the prestigious awards aren’t what makes the movie special— it’s the message that love can be found anywhere, even if it’s not by blood.
Let’s recap this classic!
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Chiron (Alex R. Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, and Trevante Rhodes) starts out as a shy, observant boy who leads a complicated life with a single mother who worked as a nurse but soon surrenders to addiction. During his childhood and teenage years, Chiron is bullied by his peers for being different, especially with regard to how he spoke, walked, and dressed. We quickly discover that all of this is because everyone has noticed he’s gay but himself.
However, when he comes across a dealer named Juan (Mahershala Ali) and his girlfriend, Teresa (Janelle Monáe), the couple decides to take Chiron as their own and navigate raising him alongside his unstable mother.
The rocky dynamic between the four is polarizing, but it’s real. Chiron understood that Juan wasn’t perfect but loved him hard because he saw who he was. Juan saw the core of Chiron by accepting him and never asking him to change as everyone else did.
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Juan and Teresa were okay with the comfortable silence between them until Chiron grew ready to speak his truth. They checked up on him frequently and gave him a haven to call home, complete with home-cooked meals and warm conversations. The two nurtured a broken boy and made him feel whole, even if it was temporary.
Given the current political climate, community is so important more than ever because it shields us from pain and provides love where it lacks in the broader world. Many queer children and adults are scared right now and understandably so, but what Moonlight teaches us is that the highest form of love is self-acceptance and surrounding yourself with people who want to see you be authentically you.
Blood is cool, but so is water— go where you’re wanted, protected, and loved.
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