“You ain't got to love me, but you gonna know that I love you”

A clichéd phrase about films is that they have the ability to transport the viewer to another world for a few hours, but in Moonlight, it’s very much this world. Only, portrayed from another perspective than those of myself. The film exists in sort of this perfect balance between a portrait of a unique individual and giving a picture of a group in society with millions of heads, all at once. As a portrait, it’s destined to be read in different ways depending on the viewer—the film even shows three different sides of the same person—but it’s also a very intimate focus on this one character. It’s in this subtle blend of the context creating us as humans and one single unique character (and, not to mention some of the best performances of the decade) that Moonlight is turned into a sharp, powerful experience like few others.

2016