Moonlight is available to watch on BFI Player, here.
It’s a bold claim but it’s hard to envision a more potent film in 2017 than Moonlight, the second feature from writer-director Barry Jenkins (Medicine for Melancholy). The film follows a young black male from childhood to adulthood as he navigates the dangers of drugs and violence in his depressed Florida neighbourhood, in addition to his complex love for his male best friend. An impeccably crafted study of African-American masculinity, Moonlight establishes Jenkins as a vital creative voice in contemporary cinema. Moonlight has been compared to Linklater’s Boyhood, but taken from a black perspective. It’s an assessment that acts as a disservice for this is a genuinely original artistic endeavour that just may re-map how we respond to and process cinema.