Those few words cement a lifetime relationship of trust between Little, Juan, and his partner Teresa (Janelle Monáe) that is based on a mainly one-way verbal communication method. “C’mon now, can’t be no worse out here,” he says as he entreats the scared child to go with him for a meal. Juan’s character is a magnanimous father figure toward the vulnerable Little whom he nurtures rather than exploits. Little is rescued from the junkie den he hides in by Juan (Mahershala Ali), the local drug dealer. This theme of escape continues throughout the majority of the film. The introduction of Little on-screen occurs in the first few minutes of the opening credits as he is running and being chased by his childhood bullies. Jenkins directs the film to portray the main character as physically adrift, alienated from his community, and travelling within himself yet surrounded by space at all times. He uses the images, sounds, and feelings in the film to show a juxtaposition of intense emotions, alienation, and loneliness amid a stunning physical landscape. Jenkins ensures that the audience sees that people can live a life of poverty, hardship, and emotional turmoil in the middle of picturesque surroundings. McCraney and Jenkins both grew up in Miami and worked together to produce a film about identity and early life in a location that was simultaneously beautiful and a nightmare. However, the film is not silent the score by Nicholas Britell, the musical interludes, and the background sounds of the Miami ocean create a moving emotional landscape from the opening scene to the final frame. Little uses his physicality more than words, with the majority of his communication being shown through the longing silently etched in his eyes. Like many young people on the cusp of a shifting physical and emotional landscape, Little is quiet and brooding he spends the majority of his time watching his peers and the adults around him. Little inhabits a world of silence, fear, and anxiety he is selectively mute because of the sadness of his home environment-where he lives with his drug addict mother Paula (Naomie Harris)-and the isolation he experiences when he cannot vocalise his feelings. Jenkins uses separate actors to portray the same character at three distinct iterations of personal growth: the first section of the film shows Little (Alex Hibbert), age 11 then Chiron (Ashton Sanders), age 17 and finally Black (Trevante Rhodes), age 25.

It is a coming-of-age story for everyone who has every questioned “Who am I?” The central character in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s story is a Black American young man in Miami, yet he is also all of us, in all locations of this world growing up and coming to terms with our unique identities and surroundings.īarry Jenkins, the screenwriter and director, takes McCraney’s story of one person’s lifetime and makes it into a filmic triptych that relates to three seminal stages of that life: preteen, teenager, and young adult.

“Moonlight” (2016) is a poetic and universal tale.

Alex r hibbert moonlight interview