Moonlight
Academy Award × 3·BFI #62·National Film Registry
Rent/Purchase
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.
What critics thought
DivisiveMoonlight landed as an almost unanimous critical triumph on release, with Barry Jenkins's triptych portrait of a Black gay man's life praised for its sensory filmmaking and quietly radical humanism — yet a handful of critics found the elliptical structure more emotionally withholding than transcendent, and the film sparked a genuine public controversy when one prominent reviewer argued its world had no claim on audiences outside it. Time has only widened the gap between that critical near-unanimity and a noticeably cooler general-audience response.
“fluid and seductive, deceptively mellow, and shot through with searing compassion”
David Rooney·The Hollywood Reporter
“achingly romantic and uncommonly wise”
Justin Chang·Los Angeles Times
“so much of the film feels old-hat”
Jake Cole·Slant Magazine
“what does make it to the screen is unforgettable”
Tasha Robinson·The Verge
Genres
Drama
Cast & Crew
DirectorBarry Jenkins
StarringTrevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome
ComposerNicholas Britell
Moonlight
Academy Award × 3·BFI #62·National Film Registry
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.
What critics thought
DivisiveMoonlight landed as an almost unanimous critical triumph on release, with Barry Jenkins's triptych portrait of a Black gay man's life praised for its sensory filmmaking and quietly radical humanism — yet a handful of critics found the elliptical structure more emotionally withholding than transcendent, and the film sparked a genuine public controversy when one prominent reviewer argued its world had no claim on audiences outside it. Time has only widened the gap between that critical near-unanimity and a noticeably cooler general-audience response.
“fluid and seductive, deceptively mellow, and shot through with searing compassion”
David Rooney·The Hollywood Reporter
“achingly romantic and uncommonly wise”
Justin Chang·Los Angeles Times
“so much of the film feels old-hat”
Jake Cole·Slant Magazine
“what does make it to the screen is unforgettable”
Tasha Robinson·The Verge
Genres
Drama
Cast & Crew
DirectorBarry Jenkins
StarringTrevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome
ComposerNicholas Britell
Rent/Purchase