Moonlight

I’ve pushed this off way too long, I can’t believe it’s taken me 10 years to finally check this out but the wait was worth it. What a gorgeous, breathtaking and heartwrenching film.  I’ve always loved the use of colour in movies and when directors are very intentional about what colour they use where and what they’re trying to represent with them. Blue is the most prominent colour throughout and its use ties back into the quote from Juan. “In the moonlight, black boys look blue” Blue to me represents a sense of safety for Chiron. Blue is where he can discover himself and be comfortable enough to present as who he is and be vulnerable. It’s used at the beach, the place where Juan teaches him how to swim, a location which the film often flashes back to. The moonlight aspect of the quote I think represents isolation. Chiron is shown throughout the movie to be very isolated and not interact with many others. When he’s alone it’s the only time he can really explore who he is without the fear of not fitting into the standards of what others expect of him. It’s no coincidence that Chiron’s first sexual encounter happens at the beach at nighttime. It’s super interesting to me then how during the third act blues are gone almost entirely from each scene, replaced with a yellow tint. Chiron doesn’t embrace who he is anymore. He’s putting up a facade of what he thinks masculinity is, the cool car, the grills, the huge muscles. It’s incredibly obvious he’s just modelling himself after Juan, the only father figure he’s ever had. Anyone who genuinely thinks La La Land deserved best picture over this masterpiece needs their heads checked immediately