moonlight

Moonlight reveals the enigma of life. Chiron is poor, black, and a homosexual. He is living in the unfortunate world where all three things individually weigh against you. Moonlight reveals Chiron in three separate stages of his life: a young boy, a teenager, and a grown man. Each stage of Chiron’s self is characterized by a nickname: Little, Chiron, and Black.

In the first stage of Chiron’s life, Little’s loneliness and pain are shown through his non-existent father, and drug addicted mother. These two early foundations begin to become a part of Little’s self. Juan, a drug dealer, and temporary father figure to Little, teaches him the basics of survival. Little learns just enough from Juan to keep his head above the water.

In the second stage, Chiron is a skinny, quiet, homosexual going to an urban Miami high school. Juan is out of his life, and Chiron is at his mental and physical capacity. Due to his drug addicted mother, home is still as loveless, and hateful as ever before. Chiron’s high school is a hostile atmosphere filled with fear. The other students can tell that Chiron is different, and seek to make examples out of him. The weight of this life is too much for Chiron to carry. Chiron’s innocence is at a breaking point.

In the final act, we are introduced to the third stage of Chiron. “Black”, a muscular drug dealer that is the by-product of this cruel world. After a life of pain, Black’s muscular physic has become the armor that now protects him. The drugs that were once the source of Little and Chiron’s pain has now become Black’s profession. Having known no one else, Black has become the spitting image of his father figure, Juan. With the world always against him, Chiron never learned how to become his own self.