Review

'Moonlight' offers authentic look at human emotion

"Moonlight" is a coming of age story about Chiron. He is growing up in the middle of a dysfunctional home where his mother is a drug addict, living a life without a father, getting constantly bullied at school and more. This is the story of his struggle to find himself as he deals with life, the highs and lows and everything that comes with it and grappling with his own sexuality and identity.

"Moonlight" is an absolute masterpiece. Quality-wise, "Moonlight" is a flawless film. It has incredible acting from everyone involved, its direction is executed flawlessly, its cinematography is exhilarating to watch and its emotional appeal is undeniable.

The most amazing aspect of this film is how real this movie feels. Nothing feels forced and it almost feels like you’ve intruded in on these characters' lives and you are watching these events unfold firsthand.

The real life feel of "Moonlight" is presented in a very unique fashion in the way that this film is broken down into three acts. Each one of these acts offers something new and reveals something new about the main character.

The first act is called “Little.” This act focuses on his elementary school life where he gets bullied and feels like an outsider. He doesn’t feel normal and that is only heightened by the harassment from other students and a drug addict mother at home.

The second act is called “Chiron.” During this act, we focus on his high school life in which life is still very difficult except now he is struggling with his sexual identity along with trying to figure out who “Chiron” is. At the end of this act, we have two defining events that change his life for good.

These events lead into the third act, which is called “Black.” Chiron, who goes by “Black,” is now an adult. Black is seemingly very different from Chiron. I don't want to give much of the third act away but just know that it is amazing in how it brings the story full circle.

As mentioned earlier, I love this real feel style to the film. It offers such an authentic and genuine feeling that it captivates its audience. I am not someone who really connects to anything that this character experiences, and yet I was drawn in and connected with this character on a level that was surprising.

With each one of these acts, I was sucked in, wanting to know what would happen next in the life of Chiron. I was so sucked into this character because each of the three actors who play Chiron are fantastic and the surprising thing is that this was essentially the first time acting in a major motion picture for all of them. They could’ve fooled me because they all give award-deserving performances.

Now, I do have to say that this movie will not be for everyone. This is a slow building drama that focuses more on the human emotion than anything else. This is not a comedy, this is not an action film and this is not necessarily an exciting movie.

"Moonlight" is a flawless and beautifully-made film that captures human emotion at its most simple form. I will have to be honest, when I walked out of the theater, I thought, "Wow this movie was fantastic, but I don't think it would be one that I will want to see again."

I was wrong. I am already wanting to see this film again and witness the beauty of each shot, the authentic real-life feel once more and the true emotions that this film brings out.

Check out a trailer of this film and if it seems to interest you, please go see it because it is truly one of the best films this year.