Moonlight

i often think about what someone once told me when i was deep in the closet. the words are now jumbled but the sentiment remains the same. do it for your younger self. you owe them that honesty. the night before i came out to two of my closest friends, i remember scrolling through my camera roll and landing on a photo of my high school self. he was smiling and yet i could only see the pain, the sadness, the mask. we change so much of ourselves for the approval of others, and while you can’t get that time back, we owe it to that person, that young guy, to live as authentically as we can in the now. i had forgotten how much of this movie rides on the reunion between kevin and chiron. we know these characters, and what they have to do to survive, so when the truth is finally spoken aloud in the diner, it cuts like glass. thank god they gave this a happy ending. there are so many out there that aren’t given the same.