Moonlight: A Coming Of Age Film

The second theoretical perspective present in Moonlight is the developmental theory. The developmental theory examines the changes that families experience over their lifespans. (Benokraitis, 36). The framework of the film fits perfectly with this perspective, as the film is split into 3 parts, representing 3 stages of Chiron’s life. Each part is signified by the name Chiron goes by at that point in life. Stage one he is called Little, stage two he goes by Chiron, and stage three he is known as Black. We watch as Chiron grows and over this time period learns how to handle different situations. One of the most prevailing developments throughout the film is how Chiron deals with his mother’s addiction. As a child, there isn’t much anything he can do. But as a teenager, he first reacts with compliance, which later develops into anger and unwillingness to even address the situation. His peers tease him about his mother’s addiction, but Chiron will not do anything about it. In the third stage of live we learn that Chiron, now going by the name Black, is a drug dealer himself. One could argue this is due to the socialization he had to drugs throughout his life. Socialization is the process of acquiring

The film “The Sapphires” directed by Wayne Blair, is based around and set in the era of the Vietnam war. Belonging whether it’s race or love is a big part of this film and constantly appears in different ways. One of the main characters, Dave Lovelace throughout the film is constantly rejected as he tries to belong and be a part of the group.

When examining the 1980s film Puberty Blues, using techniques of content analysis and personal reflection, I have observed certain differences and similarities between the culture depicted in the film and my own society and culture. The subject of the film is the journey that two young people go on as they transition from adolescence into adulthood, I will be outlining what exactly that means.

This is a criticism of Moonlight, a film directed by Barry Jenkins. It is a coming-of-age story, telling the journey of a young gay black man named Chiron. Through linear character development the film follows a young Chiron from adolescence into adulthood while growing up with alpha males in Miamis black ghettos. The Story is told in three parts, with a different actor playing the lead role in each section: a young Chiron named “Little”, as a teen named “Chiron”, and an adult named “Black”. Despite a compelling lead performance by Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris, and its great soundtrack, Moonlight falls flat and never gets out of the shadow of its typical cliche plot, all the while, the film continued to never overcome the obstacle of

The movie Before Night Falls directed by Julian Schnabel offers viewers a glimpse of how the homosexual community in Cuba was being mistreated under Fidel Castro’s regime. The true story is told in the eyes of Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas. The film depicts Arenas life in Cuba and all of the awful experiences that he had to deal with as a homosexual. Eventually he was arrested for false accusations of being a molester, however, he was actually under arrest for being a homosexual. Between the 1930s and 1990s, the Communist Cuba was abusive to the LGBT community as shown in their actions of harassment towards homosexuals, imprisoning the homosexuals, or sending them to re-education camps.

In James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues” there is a constant contrast between light and dark. Baldwin uses this theme to highlight the struggles that the Narrator and his younger brother, Sonny, both face. Light represents all of the positive aspects of life. Meanwhile, the darkness represents the constant struggle that threatens the characters in the story. Light and dark has a presence in both characters. The narrator lives his life in the “light”. He is a teacher, middleclass man, a man who has a wife and family. For the narrator, the darkness is his constant reflections on his brother, and his sense of guilt or blame for being the reason why Sonny turned to a life of drugs. The darkness represents Sonny in a way. He is a

Ryder, the protagonist, reconnected with his wife, a much older dark skinned woman, after they had been separated for over twenty years. He felt that he had to ask the people of the Blue Vein Society if he should acknowledge this woman as his official spouse instead of doing what he wanted without asking for approval. The people in this story gave the realities of what mixed raced individuals had to go through in an effort to have a place in society.

“The most exciting moment is the moment when I add the sound… At this moment, I tremble.” (Akira Kurosawa) Sound is arguably the most important concept in cinema studies, being there ever since the beginnings. It can radically change the way a motion picture is looked at and it can render what the director may sometimes find hard to depict using only his camera. Looking upon silent cinema one discovers an era which wasn’t at all silent, but rich in sound of different forms, from the simple narration of the images shown on screen, accompanied by a piano, to the complex score later composed specifically for that film. An example of that complex score is shown in Sunrise, a film by F.W. Murnau, which lies at the border between silent cinema and sound cinema. Considered to be one of the first films with an actual score, Sunrise is a great example of the multitude of dimensions and effects sound can have.

Humans are constantly criticized for being “different,” so forming an identity within a judgemental and violent community proves to be mentally exhausting. Moonlight (2016) by renowned director Barry Jenkins, vividly depicts three different stages of the life of a boy named Chiron while he transforms from a young boy to a man who struggles with coping to find who he truly is. Living in a poor crime-ridden neighborhood in Miami, Florida, Chiron goes through many trials and tribulations throughout his life to find who he is in a society that gives no mercy to anyone in it. Throughout this story, Chiron battles with forming an identity for himself as he comes to terms with being a homosexual black male who is trying to conceal the utmost fragility of who he really is. Through clever techniques used within the diegesis and mise-en-scene, Moonlight illustrates the difficulties a low-class homosexual African American man must experience throughout his life to be accepted into society as a result of not always conforming to ideas surrounding gender and race.

Imagine if you go outside your front door and you look left. There are two people dealing cocaine. You look right and there is someone being robbed with a gun. The movie Moonlight tells a story about a kid named Chiron who was different from everyone else, because he is different he got picked on and got taken advantage by everyone else including his mother, Paula. When Chiron had an opportunity to start all over he pretended to be someone he wasn’t so he could survive and be respected by others. The film shows Chiron in the parts of his life, when he was a kid the others called him Little, throughout his teenage years he was called Chiron, and as an adult he was Black. The movie took place in Miami, Florida in the “hood” around the 1980’s

Identity is transitional. Not one identity is held constant throughout one’s life. Thus, the intersectionality of one’s identity conveys how complicated humans are. This complex nature of humans is brought to life in the movie Moonlight. Directed by Barry Jenkins, this coming of age film explores the many facets of identity in the main character, Chiron. Chiron is not the only fully thought character; every named character parallels people of all walks of life. Through the intricacies of the characters, stereotypes are presented and shattered. But, the film’s central point is not to counter stereotypes. Moonlight tells a story of reality where stereotypes are rooted in truth. Consequently, Moonlight plays into a majority of stereotypes of class, race, gender, and sexual orientation.

Moonlight is a coming-of-age film released in October 21st, 2016, in the United States. It was written and directed by Barry Jenkins, and based on Tarell Alvin McCraney’s unpublished semi-autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. The movie won Best Motion Picture in the 74th Golden Globe Awards as well as Best Picture in the 2017 Academy Awards. It became the first film with an all Black cast, and the first LGBTQ film to win Best Picture. The film divides in three parts, “Little”, “Chiron”, and “Black”. It follows the infant, teenager, and adult life of Chiron, a gay Black boy in Liberty City, Miami, Florida.

From the moment you turn on a Wes Anderson movie, you can easily recognize it’s his due to the unique style. Moonrise Kingdom is one of his most popular and stylized films to date. One scene in particular I want to look into is the scene when Scout Master Ward and the other scouts are introduced. (5:31- 8:39) This scene is important to setting up the rest of the movie. It introduces us to the antagonists for the first part of the film as well as showing that Sam ran away from the camp.

Theorist Vsevolod Pudovkin claims that narrative films are mainly a “product of construction” and cautious compilations of “selections of images that have been shot” (Renée).

It is my belief that every instrument has an anthem, every instrument has an instantly recognizable piece that forms its epitome. Whether it be Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata for piano, Raphael Ravenscroft’s ‘Sax hook’ in Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street, or G.C Colemans’s Amen Break which has been referred to as “Six second drum break that shaped 1500 songs”, every instrument has this end goal to strive for, for violin, this piece is Méditation Religieuse.