Moonlight

“‘What you cry about?’ ‘Shit, I cry so much, sometimes I feel like I'm gon' just turn into drops.’” I’ve never in my life watched another movie where every single scene and every single character interaction just left me devastated. It’s been years since I watched Moonlight, and at the time, it got me really emotional, but I never thought to revisit it until now. After this rewatch, it’s clearer to me why this movie is so perfect.  The swelling of every emotional beat in the soundtrack illustrating Chiron’s life never failed to shatter my heart. Every. Single. Scene just felt so purposeful, and all of the emotional beats became especially overwhelming during the third act. This movie was getting better and better after each part, but this third act was something else. I was in absolute tears seeing Kevin recognize Chiron in the restaurant, and how nervous Chiron was to see him, given their history and the events that gave everlasting emotional weight to the last time they ever looked each other in the eyes. There’s always something or someone in our lives from our childhoods that bring us back to the people that we were. Terrified and wide-eyed, and almost, if not, completely conscious of how small we feel as we dive into the waters of recollection. Chiron wasn’t the person that he thought he should’ve been, but he didn’t have to be. When you’re hurt, scared, alone, marginalized, it’s unthinkable that you could ever be okay. It’s heart-wrenching to know that you’ll never be able to go back and find the person you could’ve been if the right people showed you love. But it’s heart-mending to finally realize that you can still be happy one day, despite all of the pain. This is not just one of the best movies of the 2010s. To me, Moonlight is one of the best movies in history, a story that could never age or be misinterpreted.  This was and still is magnificent.