Analysis Of The Movie 'Who Is You, Chiron'

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“Who is you, Chiron?” This question sets the stage for the entire movie. We follow a young boy named Chiron through adolescence to adulthood within 110 minutes of film. We watch him progress through life while he tries to erase or bury his old younger self. We first meet Chiron, also known as little, while he is running from a group of boys from his school trying to beat him up. He runs into a drug hole and is met by a man named Juan who “fosters” Chiron and soon becomes his father figure. As we watch Chiron grow we observe that he is a young boy who is struggling with his identity in environment that doesn't understand him. He discovers that he fills more at ease to talk to a man named Juan, who slowly raised him, because he is missing a father …show more content…

He begins to explore his sexual identity with his childhood friend Kevin. During part II there is a scene where Kevin and Chiron smoke on the beach and exchange sexual acts. Moments later in the movie Chiron tries to sit with Kevin at lunch but his bully, Terrell, takes his seat. Chiron walks away and Terrell and Kevin discuss a game they used to play called “Knocked Down, Stay Down,” the two share memories of the game and express how impressive Kevin was at it. The next day Terrel orders Kevin to play the game and the victim is Chiron. While I watched Chiron get literally beat into the ground I tried to imagine how Chiron must have felt after he placed trust into Kevin's hands not even two minutes ago on the screen and Kevin betrayed …show more content…

The movie also shows a battle between nature versus nurture. Should he inherit his mother's drug addictions? Should he fill the stereotype of masculinity? Should he just be himself? The movie shows Chiron constantly struggling with questions like these. We also explore that love comes from all places. Chiron didn't receive much love from his mother but Juan's wife, Teresa, showed exemplary amount of love towards him even though he was a complete stranger. Sooner or later we all accept ourselves. Moonlight beautifully captures Chiron going through this process. Barry used different characters for each chapter of Chiron's life. I thought this was going to end badly and to my surprise it went very well. The movie used each character's eyes as a focal point so you could see in their eyes that it was the same person even though each character was portrayed by a different

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