Moonlight essay questions

Although Moonlight functions within the genre of poetic realism, it also uses an intensely evocative, impressionistic editing style to do so. For example, the sound of characters speaking often plays over shots in which that character is not speaking at all, lending these moments a more subjective, rather than literal, feel.

Berry Jenkins’ intimate film Moonlight, follows the struggle of a young sensitive black man trying to find himself against his society’s expectations of masculinity and identity. Moonlight was loosely adapted from an unpublished play from Tarell McCraney called, Black Boys Look Blue. In Moonlight we...

In adopting such a subjective camera, Jenkins situates his audience in Little's subjectivity, where we will not only watch but feel his journey throughout the film. Jenkins also introduces us to some of the film's core motifs and themes here, including the dichotomy between the inside and the outside.

The chaptered structure is powerful here, as it allows the audience to be surprised when we learn that Chiron has finally morphed into the tough guy that everyone seemed to urge him to become; simultaneously, it asks whether Black may have lost some of Little's sensitivity and joie de vivre in the space between chapters.