Moonlight Movie Review

The essay studies three types of narration as they relate to the film Moonlight. These periods assist in telling the story of the film at different stages in main hero’s life and join separate parts into one narration.

Duration is a period of time when the film unfolds on the screen. Basically, there are three kinds of duration: story duration, which is a whole period of the narration; plot duration, which is the time for specific events within a story; and screen duration, which is a running time of a movie.

All these periods are beautifully joined in the Moonlight to tell a story of a young shy boy Chiron at different stages of his life and it is divided in three separate acts. The first act refers to his childhood, the second describes him being a young man at school, and the third narrates about his adulthood. The film shows in great and excruciating details how young Chiron is growing up in a very harsh environment, and how he can eventually become an adult in a world that does not quite understand him. The movie, however, thoroughly examines how hard it can be for someone to exist in the environment that does not accept him. Chiron begins to discover things about himself at a very young age, and there is no one to help him as no father’s support as well as mother also did not play an active part because of her drug addiction. He finds such people that he can only be semi-comfortable around. Meanwhile, as he gets older, it becomes increasingly difficult for him because he feels separated from everyone else around him. The film perfectly captures the harsh urban environment that many children these days live in without resorting to all of the clich?s of these types of movies.

Screen duration of Moonlight is one hour and 50 minutes. Its plot duration is about 15 years as the film does not give exact ages but shows three distinct parts of Chiron’s life. Further, story duration amounts to 20 years as by the end of the film Chiron is a fully-matured man. Therefore, all three forms of duration are used here to communicate the story in the best way. Even though, movie is somehow short, but it manages to put the plot with its complicated situations into this period, while at the same time we can infer the whole story that is not fully shown.