Review of Shots from Moonlight

Movie Background: Moonlight, released in 2016, is a movie that follows the life of a growing African-American boy, Chiron. The movie is separated into 3 chapters or stages: youth, adolescence, and early adult life, each defining the development of Chiron's life and manhood. The movie is based on the storywriter's (Tarell Alvin McCraney) play, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. Moonlight has won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Picture and has over 10 nominations in different categories like Best Actor and Screenplay.

Moonlight is one of my favorite movies I've seen so far, mainly because of the character developments and the visuals in the movie. There are several shots I loved from this movie and I picked out the ones that struck out to me the most. 

In this follow shot scene, Chiron is going back to his mother’s house after being kicked out for the night. The follow shot adds suspense to the scene and anticipates the viewers to wonder Chiron's actions. He’s had troubles with his mother before and the suspense in this scene creates an emotion that portrays him as an agitated boy. After his mother kicked him out for the night, Chiron slept over at Teresa’s house, who acts as a second mother to him. He feels safe and comfortable at her place, which is done by her welcoming nature. 

In this pan shot, a group of boys are waiting around to see who’s going to grab the soccer ball first. Chiron is the young boy in the red shirt. This pan shot adds a quiet suspense to the seen and the boys’ expressions anticipate the viewers to wonder who will grab the boy. Chiron is developing in this stage of his life since he is seen as an introverted kid that lacks social skills. Although he later retracts from the game, he still befriends Kevin, who became a close friend to him throughout the film. Kevin is one of the major characters Chiron felt safe and comfortable with in the film, which allows the viewers to see a more vulnerable side of Chiron when the two are together. 

The movie opens up with this two shot scene of Juan and a local employee talking. The two shot adds a level of intimacy as the two subjects are having a conversation. Juan is a local drug dealer and the boy in black is one of his sub dealers that works for him. His mother is in critical health condition and Juan is able to provide him with a job to support her financially. This adds more to the effects of the two shot as the intimacy is actually depicted by the scene. Although Juan doesn’t necessarily abuse drugs, he manages a branch of it to help out his local community. Juan is embarrassed by the fact and doesn’t want everyone to know, especially Chiron, but he later finds out. 

In this eye level shot, Juan’s actions are focused on. The viewers are able to clearly see what’s happening since the eye level shot adds more of an enhancement on the subject’s actions. The camera angle helps develop this shot greatly since it is closer to the subject’s face. In this scene, Juan is teaching Chiron how to swim for the first time. Juan becomes a mentor/father figure to Chiron throughout the first part of the film. Their relationship is something that Chiron cherishes, even after Juan passes away after the first stage of Chiron’s life. 

This full shot of adolescent Chiron captures his body from head to toe. The cameraman had to film this shot from a farther angle to capture his full frame. This is something that I had to do when I filmed my subject for the full shot. Since she was shorter than me, it was hard to catch her frame at a lower angle without making it look like a high angle shot from my eye level angle. In this second stage of his life, adolescent Chiron is lost and alone in this scenario. After getting confronted by the local bullies from his school, he feels powerless and confused. Chiron often gets teased or bullied for his actions, style, and personality. This causes him to have a harder time searching for his identity and sexuality. The environment around him doesn’t allow him to be vulnerable unless he’s at Teresa’s house. Although I can not personally relate to Chiron’s character, I can attest that us teenagers are often force to hide our true identities in the society we live in. Especially on social media, it’s hard for anyone to be their true selves without society reigning negativity upon them.

In the early adulthood stage of his life, Chiron is still understand his identity. Shown in this cameo shot, he’s taking an exasperated sigh as he recovers from a weird dream. The cameo shot allows the viewers to focus on Chiron’s facial expressions and emotions as the neutral background overshadows any distractions. These shots are usually common in movies and often depict strong emotions. Although Chiron is older now, he’s certainly still lost. After getting out of jail, he mirrors the personality and profession of Juan. This results from his strong connection with Juan and Chiron mirroring Juan’s personality can be seen as a form of grief and fear. He’s not sure what to do with himself so he tries to be like someone he loved and respected for a good part of his life.