Moonlight
Short description
Moonlight follows Chiron, a young Black man growing up in a tough Miami neighborhood, across three stages of his life. As a quiet boy nicknamed Little, he endures bullying at school and his mother's drug addiction, finding shelter with the dealer Juan and his girlfriend Teresa. In his teens he struggles to fit in and comes to terms with being gay, and as an adult he has reinvented himself as Black, hardened by a stint in prison, until a call from his old friend Kevin pulls him back toward the past. The film is a drama about identity, family and first love, set against the drug trade of the era, and it builds toward a reunion rather than a resolution.
Barry Jenkins directed and wrote the screenplay, working with producers Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Adele Romanski. It was his first feature after an earlier debut, and it preceded If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) and Mufasa: The Lion King (2024). The cast includes Trevante Rhodes as Black, André Holland as Kevin, Janelle Monáe as Teresa, Ashton Sanders as Chiron, Jharrel Jerome as the teenage Kevin and Alex Hibbert as Little, with 26 credited cast members and 85 credited crew.
Made for about 4 million dollars, the film took roughly 65 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.4/10 from 351,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.4/10 from 7,693 votes. A critics' rating of 9/10 from 402 reviews places it clearly above those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film's narrative model is borrowed from the film "Three Times".
- Due to the low budget, actors were allocated only one trailer as a makeup room and restroom, and they had to share a recreation room with the crew.
- As director Barry Jenkins recounted, the three actors playing Chiron never crossed paths on set. He wanted each actor to create their own image of the character without subconsciously adjusting to the performances of others. The exact same technique was used with the actors playing Kevin.
- Naomi Harris filmed all her scenes in just 3 days. She had to fit the shooting schedule in between the promotional tour for "Spectre" (2015).
- Filming took 25 days in late October and early November 2015. It took place in the southern part of Florida.
- The grown-up Chiron drives a car with the license plate BLACK305. Black is the nickname Kevin gave him as a child, and "305" is the Miami area code.
- Director Barry Jenkins and screenwriter Tarell McCraney knew exactly what and how to film, as both grew up in the Liberty City area of Miami, and both of their mothers used drugs. Almost 80% of the filming took place in this area, one of the poorest in the entire United States. Initially, the crew was worried about safety, but the locals somehow found out that Jenkins grew up here. After that, the reasons for concern disappeared. Naomi Harris even said that she had never felt so safe during filming before.
- Director Barry Jenkins' favorite moment in the film is the scene where Paula looks directly into the camera, operating at 48 frames per second. Jenkins decided to film and include this episode in the film quite literally at the last moment.
- Initially, Naomi Harris was unsure whether she should take on the role of a drug addict, as it went against her life principles. From the very beginning of her acting career, she was determined to create images of exclusively positive women. The actress agreed only when director Barry Jenkins confessed to her that the image of her character was based on his own mother. While preparing for the role, the actress watched YouTube videos about drug addicts for a month.
- Naomi Harris is the only actress who appears in all three parts of the film.
- In the scene where Juan teaches Little to swim, Mahershala Ali actually taught Alex R. Hibbert how to swim.
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