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Moonlight
UNITED STATES · 2016

Moonlight

Barry Jenkins
coming of age LGBTQ+ identity masculinity poverty and class love and relationships
Watch on MUBI → ▶ Trailer

Synopsis

The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.

Cinema Atlas Connection
Barry Jenkins has cited Claire Denis's Beau Travail as a foundational influence — the film that showed him how to use the body, light, and music as primary storytelling tools rather than dialogue. Moonlight's fragmented structure, its use of color as emotion, its willingness to let silence carry meaning — these are lessons from Denis and Wong Kar-wai. Beau Travail is streaming on Criterion Channel and is one of the most beautiful films ever made.
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