Moonlight review

Moonlight is a drama which follows three stages of a black man's life as he grows up in Miami.

Moonlight isn't a film for everyone. I know this because the audience I saw it with made their views very clear. I saw it as part of Odeon's Screen Unseen, a preview screening where the title of the film is kept secret until the BBFC title card comes up. When it did there were several groans of confusion and even a "What the [effety jeffety] is this?". There were several walkouts and the people down the row from me were talking and on their phones for most of it. There were some people in the audience who didn't seem to be able to handle serious discussions and depictions of homosexuality.

I thought that it was a very well made look into someone's life. I am only familiar with the style of life presented here through films and TV, as growing up white, outside of poverty in Scotland I haven't been exposed to the main lifestyle shown. However, that doesn't mean that because you aren't familiar with the lifestyle, you won't be able to relate to anyone. The three actors who played Chiron all did well at making the character distinctive at each age. Naomie Harris is excellent as his drug addicted mother, and Mahershala Ali stands out in his role as a surrogate father.

If I had one complaint it would be that the cinematography is quite frenetic at the beginning and there is one scene that includes running which is extremely shaky. I never felt motion sickness watching Cloverfield, but this one sequence had some dizzying effect on me.

In short: Moonlight is a great achievement for a film of its budget, but isn't for everyone.