Moonlight

Released: Ocober 21, 2016

Studio: A24

Genre: romantic drama

Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: 27.85 Worldwide: 65.17

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: -- Worldwide: --

Directing: Barry Jenkins

Screenwriting: Barry Jenkins

Starring: Trevante Rhodes, Mahershala Ali, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris, Alex R. Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, Jaden Piner

Review:

Moonlight is a coming-of-age romantic drama written and directed by Barry Jenkins. It was based on the unpublished, semi-autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tarell Alvin McCraney. The movie looks at the struggles Chiron faces as a black homosexual man and the abuse he endured growing up by looking at his childhood (Hibbert), adolescence (Sanders), and adulthood (Rhodes). The story follows his relationship with Kevin, who is also depicted during childhood (Piner), adolescence (Jerome), and adulthood (Holland).

However, Richard Brody of the New Yorker says, “the subject of Moonlight isn’t blackness or gayness; it’s one man whose many qualities include being black and being gay – and whose own keen awareness of his place in the world, and of its implications, is the high-pressure, high-heat forge of his densely solid, relentlessly opaque, yet terrifyingly vulnerable and fragile character.” ^NY

This was “the first LGBTQ-themed-mass-marketed feature film with an all-black cast.” ^WK Mahershala Ali, who portrayed Juan, a drug dealer and father figure to Chiron, was the first Muslim to win an Oscar for acting.

Moonlight’s win for Best Picture was the source of one of the most awkward moments in Oscar history. Presenter Warren Beatty was given the wrong card and incorrectly read that La La Land had won. During the acceptance speeches, the La La Land crew found out they hadn’t actually won and the mistake was corrected.