海角大神

Though not the towering masterpiece it鈥檚 being touted to be, 鈥淢oonlight鈥澛燼t its best is an uncommonly sensitive coming-of-age narrative, divided聽into three sections over multiple decades, about a young gay black man聽growing up in the 1980s in Miami's crack-plagued Liberty City, Fla. The film is directed by Barry Jenkins 鈥� only his second feature film 鈥� who grew up聽in Liberty City, as did Tarell Alvin McCraney, the MacArthur genius grant winner whose short, unproduced play, 鈥淚n Moonlight Black Boys聽Look Blue,鈥� Jenkins adapted. (The men did not know each other growing up.)聽The deep-down feeling for the Liberty City milieu is one of the film鈥檚聽strongest suits: Jenkins and McCraney know these streets and these聽people.

The film鈥檚 three sections take their titles from the boy鈥檚 names or聽nicknames at successive points in his life. In the first, 鈥淟ittle,鈥� he is a聽frightened 9-year-old boy (played by Alex R. Hibbert) who is first seen running聽from a gang of taunting schoolkids. He takes shelter in an abandoned聽crack house, where he is accidentally discovered by Juan (Mahershala聽Ali), a Cuban-born local drug dealer who takes the boy, who is refusing to speak,聽back to his home and tries, along with his girlfriend Teresa (Janelle Mon谩e), to get him to open up.

Little鈥檚 single mother Paula (Naomie Harris) is, we soon discover, a聽crack addict. Juan鈥檚 home becomes a refuge for Little and, contrary to what聽we may fear, the bond they share 鈥� a boy needing a father figure, a man聽wanting a son 鈥� does not morph into something ugly. Little isn鈥檛 abused or聽groomed for drug dealing. Teresa is equally caring. When Little, eating聽lunch with them, quietly asks the meaning of a gay slur that he has been called in聽school, Juan鈥檚 answer is compassionate and caring. Teresa says,聽鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing but love and pride in this house.鈥�

Is it unrealistic that a man like Juan could be such a dream dad, or that his聽home could serve as a haven? Only if you are accustomed to the usual聽exploitative melodramatics that often accompany movies about African-Americans, especially those centering on drug addiction and poverty.聽Jenkins doesn鈥檛 ignore the plagues of Juan鈥檚 livelihood; it turns out, for聽example, that he supplies crack to Little鈥檚 mother. But 鈥淢oonlight,鈥� for聽each of its protagonists, is about the indefinability of identity. People are聽not always what they seem to be.

The second section, 鈥淐hiron,鈥� taking its title from the boy鈥檚 given聽name, shows him in high school, where he seems like a friendless outsider聽except for his childhood buddy, Kevin (Jharrel Jerome), with whom he聽shares a moment of tentative sexual intimacy one moonlit night at the聽beach. (Chiron is played by doleful-eyed Ashton Sanders.) The woeful repercussions of that intimacy incite a rage that聽eventually leads a decade later to the film鈥檚 third chapter, 鈥淏lack,鈥� where聽Chiron, nicknamed Black, and played by Trevante Rhodes, has been聽released from juvenile prison in Atlanta and is now a bulked-up, bling-infested drug dealer bearing no resemblance to his earlier incarnations. A聽call from Kevin (Andr茅聽Holland) in Florida prompts a wary, tender聽nighttime reunion between the two in a diner that Kevin owns and operates.聽Jenkins moves the story along with a tempo often slow-paced enough聽to seem trancelike. He captures the stillnesses in these people鈥檚 lives. His聽deliberately 鈥減oetic鈥� approach is often at odds with the hard-edged聽narrative. It also serves to mythologize, to an extent, what we are seeing:聽When the two boys, for example, look out at a moonlit sea, the聽overweening sentimentality of the scene has an iconic cachet: We are聽being told, gently but firmly, how to feel.

The poeticization may explain why Jenkins cast three actors as Chiron聽who all, in varying ways, are near-mute, almost sculptural figures. If any聽of these actors had been encouraged to play up his emotions, the聽trancelike mood might have been broken. I often wish it had been. Too聽often 鈥減oetic鈥� in 鈥淢oonlight鈥� becomes 鈥減recious.鈥� Given that this movie聽has at its center Chiron 鈥� with his resonant, and more often not-so-resonant, blankness聽鈥� it is nevertheless the people around him who hold sway.

Full-out, richly layered acting need not clash with the mood, as聽triumphantly demonstrated by Ali, Harris, Holland, and聽Mon谩e. There may聽not be a better quartet of performances in a single movie this year.聽

So few unexploitative movies are made about young black men,聽especially young black gay men, that the overpraise for this frail, sweet,聽discursive fantasia is understandable 鈥� and forgivable. It鈥檚 a beautiful film聽around the edges.聽Grade:聽B (Rated R for some sexuality, drug use, brief violence, and language throughout.)