TORONTO (AP) – The shimmering glow of Barry Jenkin’s “Moonlight,” a poetic coming-of-age tale told across three chapters about a young gay black kid growing up in a poor, drug-ridden neighborhood of Miami, has lit up this year’s fall film festival circuit like no other film.
Following its much-lauded debut at the Telluride Film Festival last week and leading up to its bow Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival, “Moonlight” has been received with an overflowing of emotion and acclaim. It’s an uncannily intimate portrait of a young man’s identity being formed, in fits and starts, both painful and beautiful, with profound reverberations about black America.
The film, executive produced by Brad Pitt, has, among other things, established its director as a major talent in cinema. It’s Jenkins’ second film, coming eight years after his well-received 2008 feature debut “Medicine for Melancholy.” ”Moonlight” will also land at the upcoming New York Film Festival before hitting theaters Oct. 21.
“Very rarely do you realize ‘I’m living one of my dreams’ in the present tense,” Jenkins said Friday in Toronto, having come straight from Telluride and still elated by his film’s reception.
“Moonlight” is based on the play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue” by Tarell Alvin McCraney, who, like his protagonist Chiron, grew up homosexual outside Miami, the son of a crack-addicted mother. Though Jenkins is heterosexual, he comes from the same area and his mother was also an addict.