Gay Cinema Classic: Moonlight
The film by Barry Jenkins won the Oscar for Best Picture.
Adapting a story by Tarell Alvin McCraney, Barry Jenkins wrote and directed Moonlight.
The film presents three stages in the life of the main character: his childhood, adolescence, and early adult life. It explores the difficulties he faces with his homosexuality and identity as a black homosexual man, including the physical and emotional abuse he endures growing up.
The cast includes Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris, and Mahershala Ali.
A major theme of Moonlight is black male identity and its interactions with sexual identity. But it also explores the complexity of masculinity and how the men around us shape who we become.
It's an intelligent, achingly beautiful film.
Gareth Johnson
