![]() ![]() For the record, though, pre- Moonlight Jenkins had started working on a feature that involved Stevie Wonder and time travel. He also directed an episode of Netflix’s upcoming Dear White People. Before Moonlight’s big wins, Jenkins was in talks to adapt Colson Whitehead’s acclaimed novel The Underground Railroad into a limited series with his Moonlight producers Plan B and Adele Romanski. And we’re really going to miss them! Sure, we have those glorious Calvin Klein stripped-down shots of Trevante Rhodes, but when will he get to wear a velvet tuxedo again? And what about director Barry Jenkins - after winning two Oscars, what projects does he have coming down the pipeline? Now that Moonlight has a coveted Best Picture Oscar (not to mention a Best Supporting Actor statue for Mahershala Ali and a Best Original Screenplay award for Barry Jenkins), here’s what the future looks like for the key players in Moonlight.Īfter the Oscars, Barry Jenkins declined to tell Vanity Fair whether his next project will be another A24 production. Now that the Oscars are over and awards season is winding down, we need to reckon with a fresh absence in our daily lives: No more red carpets means far less regular engagements with Moonlight’s cast. I can't think of a movie in recent memory that puts loneliness and anguish on screen more effectively than "Moonlight." It's a movie that asks us to see life from the perspective of a very specific individual but then draws universal conclusions from it that makes the superficial differences between him and the viewer (I'm not black, I'm not gay, I didn't grow up in a poor urban environment) melt away until you feel deep compassion and sympathy for a fellow human being who is doing what we all are - navigating the complexities of living on this world and making the best of it we can.Photo: John Shearer/Getty Images for People Magazine ![]() This entire sequence is directed, written, and acted with utmost delicacy. In the film's final and most breathtaking sequence, we follow Chiron as a man in his twenties to a reunion with a high school friend who gave him his first gay experience and whom he's never been able to completely move on from. The middle section depicts Chiron as a young man navigating his emerging homosexuality and the high school bullying that goes along with it. In a Dickensian twist, this person happens to be a drug dealer who nevertheless offers him sympathy and understanding not to be found anywhere else. As a little boy, he struggles with loneliness and neglect thanks to a crack-addicted mom (played by Naomie Harris) and takes to the first person who offers to be a father figure to him. ![]() His name is Chiron, and the movie shows him to us at three stages of his life, portrayed by three different but wonderful actors. He doesn't fit into any of the categories available to him, so he sets out to force himself into one that seems like the best option. The main conflict at the heart of "Moonlight," a beautiful movie about a young black man's coming of age in poor and drug-afflicted Miami, is our protagonist's inability to define himself in terms that his environment will allow. If it can't be easily categorized, it's either frightening and something to be opposed to, or it's abnormal and therefore something to be marginalized. "Moonlight" may very well be a breath of fresh air to others who are tired to death of our culture's obsession with labeling and categorizing everything in an attempt to understand it. ![]()
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