Moonlight is a masterclass in expressive camera and sound. We walk through the film’s structure, cinematography, sound and symbolism to show you what you might have missed about this immersive and intimate story.
Works Cited & Consulted:
* Scott, A.O. (Oct. 20, 2016). “‘Moonlight’: Is This the Year’s Best Movie?” The New York Times.
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
00:05
berry Jenkins moonlight is the story of
00:07
a sensitive young black man shyrone who
00:09
feels pressured by his hyper male Miami
00:12
environment to deny his sexuality and
00:14
true self told in three chapters
00:16
following three phases of his life the
00:18
film stands out for both its form and
00:21
its content how it’s made and what the
00:23
story is about and the seamless way and
00:25
married that how and what together let’s
00:28
walk through what you might have missed
00:30
about moonlight and why the film has
00:31
drawn such a goober and praise from
00:33
critics and audiences structurally the
00:39
three distinct chapters highlight the
00:41
fragility mutability and complexity of a
00:44
person’s identity over time by casting
00:46
three different actors for the three
00:48
different versions of shyrone the lost
00:49
young little whose nickname is an insult
00:52
thrust on him and a name he must reject
00:54
the teenager shyrone he’s dealing with
00:56
his mother’s worsening addiction and the
00:58
hardened black whose repressed his real
01:00
self and put on a gangster facade
01:02
moonlight happened to something that
01:04
many of us feel that we are actually
01:06
different people at different stages of
01:08
our lives there’s continuity between the
01:10
actors performances yet to an external
01:12
observers they’re not the same person
01:14
looks like this that allows you to
01:17
understand that life is a growing
01:19
process and it’s important to understand
01:21
that’s okay the choice explores the
01:23
relationship between external persona
01:25
and internal self
01:27
Sharon’s identity is always interacting
01:29
with his community shaped by how they
01:31
see him and label him and how he
01:33
responds to that communal perception as
01:35
playwright mcrainey has said a key part
01:37
of the story is that quote the community
01:39
knows things about him before he knows
01:41
them about himself you ever see the way
01:43
you’ve uh what people want to place them
01:46
in a category before he even understands
01:49
what that means long associate could be
01:56
getting good you know the body Cardinal
01:58
Fang how do I know you know you know
02:02
this structure reveals the universal
02:05
speed in shyrone struggle for
02:06
self-awareness at the same time there’s
02:08
an important particular story of the
02:11
young black man who’s trapped by his
02:12
society’s expectations of masculinity
02:14
meanwhile he escapes of force in
02:17
authentic
02:17
persona thanks to the help of a few who
02:20
throw him a lifeline based on the
02:24
unproduced play and moonlight black boys
02:26
look blue by Tarell Alvin McCraney
02:28
moonlight is a triumph of expressive
02:31
camera and sound design it’s not just
02:33
that it looks and sounds great every
02:35
camera and sound choice by Jenkins and
02:37
DP James Laxton has a clear purpose
02:40
they’re always working to express
02:42
Sharon’s inner world from moment to
02:44
moment we’re taking the camera rather
02:46
than allowing the audience to mate
02:48
outside so we place the camera between
02:50
act as you want to make me always an
02:52
active participant the opening scene
02:54
gives us the kind of slick swirling
02:56
camera work associated with Michael Bay
02:58
blockbusters it tells us this character
03:00
Maher Sheila Ally’s one a big man in
03:03
town and a drug dealer is calm cool and
03:06
has status like the camera he’s smooth
03:09
the next scene thrust us into the
03:11
opposite feeling discomfort with an
03:13
extremely shaky handheld camera it tells
03:16
us this boy shyrone nicknamed little is
03:18
on shore insecure his life is painful
03:21
chaos replaced in his perspective by the
03:24
overpowering sound of the rocks and
03:26
objects thrown by the bullies we feel
03:28
how trapped and terrified this boy is in
03:31
the dinner-table scene between one
03:33
little and one’s girlfriend Theresa the
03:35
camera instead of simply intercutting
03:37
between single shots of the three people
03:39
pan smoothly between Juan and Teresa the
03:42
fluid movement tells us there’s warmth
03:44
and connection between the couple
03:45
expressed by the camera through the
03:47
spatial connection it also gives us
03:49
little point of view as he looks from
03:51
one to the other and underlines the
03:53
secure bond he feels from them as Juan
03:55
talked a little on the beach the camera
03:57
uses the same ocean connecting mentor to
04:00
you so again we feel the connection
04:02
between the characters throughout the
04:04
film shots from behind for our ability
04:06
to reach our own and his emotion we’re
04:09
always trying to see inside just as he’s
04:11
trying and often failing to see himself
04:13
truly the film uses circular shots to
04:16
signify feeling part of the in-group
04:17
early on we see boys playing on a field
04:20
too exuberant classical music the smooth
04:22
circular camera captures their feeling
04:24
of
04:25
relief and happiness within the group we
04:27
then break off to see little who doesn’t
04:29
feel part of that group and that’s when
04:31
little meets calves who will become his
04:33
lifelong friend
04:34
the circular shot comes back again when
04:36
the teenage bully Tyrell engineers’ the
04:38
knock out of teenage Tyrone pressuring
04:40
calves to hit him here the circular shot
04:42
is menacing as the camera focuses on
04:45
Tyrone we see how the peer pressure of
04:47
the in-crowd can be a terrifying
04:48
damaging for the camera and sound also
04:51
play with disjointedness when we see
04:54
Chevron’s crack-addicted mother Paula in
04:56
the middle of a high the face on camera
04:58
and the sound don’t match have you if
05:02
you gain grooms the all feeling
05:04
transitions of into Paula’s calm down as
05:07
she flips from elation to panic and
05:09
abuse he animated a my years later when
05:13
Kevin shyrone reunite and share an
05:16
intimate look again the sound is
05:17
disjointed from the picture I will for
05:23
them the moment is larger than life
05:24
surreal and thus the off picture and
05:27
sound are used to register a different
05:29
effect here the momentous news of this
05:31
meeting throughout classical music
05:33
signified she roams in herself at odds
05:36
with his chaotic outer environment and
05:38
in yearning for peace and
05:39
self-expression a good example of this
05:42
is the scene when Paula yells as I rode
05:44
in the doorway the shot is still in the
05:46
classical music plays as he disconnects
05:48
from the disturbing external realities
05:50
meanwhile in the ocean scene with one
05:53
and little the classical music and fluid
05:55
motion are combined with a low immersive
05:57
camera and makes it appear the water
05:59
washes over us
06:00
we’re included in shiraz baptism or
06:03
initiation into some new part of
06:05
themselves all of these camera and sound
06:07
choices are undeniably beautiful and
06:09
artful but more importantly at every
06:11
moment they have intention they express
06:13
Sharon’s inner world movies about
06:18
depressed parts of society or people
06:20
living in poverty or hardship tend to be
06:23
told in a certain common language we
06:25
think of social realism harsh camera
06:27
naturalism a
06:29
down.look severity Krim visual loud
06:32
jarring noises the chenkin isn’t
06:35
interested in a social realist severe
06:37
portrait of miami what’s really
06:39
significant and that jenkins is
06:41
disrupting the formula of how a story
06:43
about a young black man in a poor
06:45
neighborhood is often told here it’s not
06:47
with hip-hop music not near the
06:49
traditional narrative trajectory not is
06:51
only a jarring depiction of misery or
06:53
outer chaos instead of taking the hood
06:55
to the art house we’re going to bring
06:56
the art house to the hood that we have
06:58
you violins and cellos if I owned a
07:00
better wheelchair respect with these
07:05
words about taking the art house to the
07:08
hood Jenkins hits on a truth about our
07:10
expectations as if this artistic music
07:13
rising out of his soul isn’t what we
07:15
expect from the movie just as it isn’t
07:17
what others expect of sharone critics
07:19
have described moonlight as a visual
07:21
poem the movie shows us what’s inside of
07:23
sharone and how his inner life can be
07:26
tragically mismatched with his outer one
07:32
when Kevin shyrone talked about their
07:34
search for tranquility they acquainted
07:36
with the breeze cat says sometimes along
07:39
the way where we live and catch that
07:42
same breeze just comes through the hood
07:44
and it’s like everything stops for a
07:46
second because everyone just want to
07:49
feel it should make you want to cross
07:52
and so go this breeze evokes the feeling
07:55
of being able to relax from the daily
07:57
routine of putting on a persona and
07:59
letting yourself breathe and be yourself
08:01
we hear the breeze in the early scene
08:03
when little starts to connect with one
08:05
at the beach Allah will surely mislead
08:09
you we hear it during the first time
08:11
shyrone is touched by another person keV
08:14
after keV is pressured into turning on
08:16
shyrone and beating him we hear total
08:18
silence as if a death has occurred and
08:21
for the time being it seems that the
08:23
shyrone of chapter 2 has died to be
08:25
replaced by the hard black of chapter 3
08:28
only when he later reunites with keV and
08:31
they open up with each other do we again
08:33
hear the sound of a breeze this breeze
08:37
represents the feeling of being loved
08:40
the presence of someone who loves us
08:42
minded about the people who help you you
08:45
know the people who do love you the ones
08:47
who do emerge until you arrive even
08:50
though one is the flawed or misguided
08:51
role model in many ways he’s selling
08:54
drugs to Sharon’s mother and fully aware
08:56
of the problems with that he and Teresa
08:58
give shyrone love and acceptance which
09:00
is what he needs more than anything the
09:02
story is just a beautiful journey about
09:04
how you can find the longing but only
09:07
through another person and how love has
09:10
dignity to feel and Kaz finally
09:12
fulfilled shy roans deep need to be seen
09:15
as he really is to be accepted and to be
09:18
touched the breeze is also connected
09:20
with the healing presence of the ocean
09:22
as well as with the film’s title
09:23
moonlight Juan first talks about the
09:26
moonlight too little moonlight
09:29
now boys with blue you boom at some
09:34
point you got to decide for yourself you
09:39
can’t let nobody make that decision to
09:42
you
09:43
moonlight takes on the meaning of our
09:45
secret innermost self the person one
09:47
really is alone with that moonlight in
09:49
shy rome’s case for many years that
09:51
person may rarely if ever be brought out
09:54
into the Sun the movie with its three
09:56
chapters titled after shyrone three
09:58
names or personas is about this search
10:00
for the true self supposed to know and
10:02
to understand one’s inner nature until
10:04
is openly as that person like the breeze
10:07
and the water being one’s authentic self
10:09
has a feeling of subtle motion fluidity
10:12
relaxation escape from the confusion of
10:15
environments that pressure us to fit
10:17
into rigid expectations when shyrone at
10:19
the end admit his need to be touched by
10:22
Cavs we conclude with the final shot of
10:24
his young self in the moonlight turning
10:26
to camera and he looks to us including
10:29
us and inviting us to do the same
10:31
Jenkins achievement is a masterclass in
10:33
visual storytelling driven by character
10:35
a sophisticated storytelling technique
10:37
uses all the tools in the toolbox to
10:39
draw us in to surprise us and to change
10:42
our expectations of how stories are told
10:47
[Music]
10:56
you
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video
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