Moonlight Moonlight Trailer
& Barry Jenkins

Moonlight

 7.4

A young African-American man grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood.

  • Director: , Barry Jenkins
  • Main Cast: Trevante Rhodes, Janelle Monáe, André Holland
  • Soundtrack: , Nicholas Britell
  • Cinematography: , James Laxton
  • Screenplay: , Barry Jenkins
  • Cinema Premiere: November 18, 2016



What do English critics think?

24 english reviews of Moonlight (2016)

  • 1. CineVue
    10 / 10

    Bold in ambition and delicate in execution, it will break your heart and then piece it back together.
    - Ben Nicholson

    CineVue »

  • 2. The Globe and Mail
    10 / 10

    Intimate drama might simply be too good for the Academy
    - Kate Taylor

    theglobeandmail.com »

  • 3. Wall Street Journal
    10 / 10

    It’s a masterpiece — an overused word, but not the wrong one.
    - John Anderson

    Wall Street Journal »

  • 4. The Telegraph
    10 / 10

    A graceful, compassionate coming-of-age heartbreaker
    - Robbie Collin

    telegraph.co.uk »

  • 5. Variety
    10 / 10

    "Moonlight" challenges easy stereotypes at every turn.
    - Peter Debruge

    Variety »

  • 6. The Playlist
    10 / 10

    "Moonlight" is a piece of art that will transform lives long after it leaves theaters.
    - Gregory Ellwood

    The Playlist »

  • 7. Hollywood Reporter
    10 / 10

    A haunting reflection on African American masculinity, writer-director Barry Jenkins' intimate character study traces the life of a Black gay man from his troubled Miami childhood to maturity.
    - David Rooney

    hollywoodreporter.com »

  • 8. IndieWire
    10 / 10

    "Moonlight" transforms rage and frustration into unadulterated intimacy.
    - Eric Kohn

    IndieWire »

  • 9. Screen Daily
    10 / 10

    "Moonlight" is quietly devastating in its depiction of masculinity, race, poverty and identity.
    - Tim Grierson

    Screen Daily »

  • 10. The Guardian
    10 / 10

    It’s a thrilling, deeply necessary work that opens up a much-needed and rarely approached on-screen conversation about the nature of gay masculinity.
    - Benjamin Lee

    theguardian.com »

  • 11. Roger Ebert
    10 / 10

    It’s in the final scenes of the film—in which Jenkins knows he’s laid the groundwork, trusts his actors and allows the emotions of what’s unsaid to provide the dramatic thrust—that "Moonlight" makes its greatest impact. Jenkins deeply understands that it is human connection that forms us, that changes our trajectory and makes us who we are.
    - Brian Tallerico

    rogerebert.com »

  • 12. Time Out
    10 / 10

    "Moonlight" takes the pain of growing up and turns it into hardened scars and private caresses. This film is, without a doubt, the reason we go to the movies: to understand, to come closer, to ache, hopefully with another.
    - Joshua Rothkopf

    Time Out »

  • 13. Time
    10 / 10

    "Moonlight" is a coming-of-age movie, and a love story, that leaves you feeling both stripped bare and restored, slightly better prepared to step out and face the world of people around you, with all the confounding challenges they present. There’s not much more you can ask from a movie.
    - Stephanie Zacharek

    Time »

  • 14. The Film Stage
    10 / 10

    It’s a beautifully honest moment of human compassion.
    - Jared Mobarak

    The Film Stage »

  • 15. We Got This Covered
    10 / 10

    "Moonlight" captures the limitations of masculine conventions in an incredibly sympathetic, deeply felt way.
    - Darren Ruecker

    We Got This Covered »

  • 16. Consequence
    10 / 10

    "Moonlight", one of the very best films of the year so far, is a reminder that underneath our pain, each of us want the same things — comfort, shelter, and a space in which we can be ourselves.
    - Nico Lang

    Consequence »

  • 17. Village Voice
    10 / 10

    The Sensuous "Moonlight" Dares to Let Black Men Love
    - Melissa Anderson

    Village Voice »

  • 18. Vulture
    10 / 10

    Hype would bruise Barry Jenkins’s "Moonlight", which is so delicate in its touch that the usual superlatives sound unusually shrill. It’s the gentlest, most suggestive of great films.
    - David Edelstein

    Vulture »

  • 19. Los Angeles Times
    10 / 10

    "Moonlight" is magic. So intimate you feel like you're trespassing on its characters souls, so transcendent it's made visual and emotional poetry out of intensely painful experience, it's a film that manages to be both achingly familiar and unlike anything we've seen before.
    - Kenneth Turan

    latimes.com »

  • 20. Rolling Stone
    10 / 10

    "Moonlight", which announces Jenkins as a major filmmaker, gets you good. It stays raw from first scene to last.
    - Peter Travers

    Rolling Stone »

  • 21. The AV Club
    10 / 10

    "Moonlight" floats the idea that we’re shaped most by the people in our lives
    - A. A. Dowd

    The AV Club »

  • 22. ReelViews
    8.8 / 10

    If the story’s trajectory seems familiar, that’s because "Moonlight" is grounded in real, common occurrences. Its power comes not through surprising and unexpected narrative developments but as a result of our identification with the characters. That’s a rare and welcome thing for a movie to achieve.
    - James Berardinelli

    ReelViews »

  • 23. Christian Science Monitor
    7.5 / 10

    Jenkins moves the story along with a tempo often slow-paced enough to seem trancelike. He captures the stillnesses in these people’s lives. His deliberately “poetic” approach is often at odds with the hard-edged narrative.
    - Peter Rainer

    Christian Science Monitor »

  • 24. Slant Magazine
    6.3 / 10

    What tends to right "Moonlight", even when Jenkins’s style drifts into indulgence, is the strength of its actors.
    - Sam C. Mac

    slantmagazine.com »

15 foreign reviews of Moonlight (2016)

  • 1. Moviezine
    10 / 10

    Translated from swedish: This is an ultra-realistic film about growing up as an African-American with drugs, bullying, homosexuality and crime, and surviving against all odds.
    - Annika Andersson

    Swedish: moviezine.se »

  • 2. Nöjesguiden
    10 / 10

    Translated from swedish: It's masterfully staged.
    - Calle Wahlström

    Swedish: ng.se »

  • 3. Dagens Nyheter
    10 / 10

    Translated from swedish: Terrible, painful and personal
    - Hynek Pallas

    Swedish: dn.se »

  • 4. Sveriges Radio
    10 / 10

    Translated from swedish: A beautiful and touching story about Chiron, a young black gay man who grows up in a tough part of Miami marked by drugs and crime.
    - Björn Jansson

    Swedish: sverigesradio.se »

  • 5. Sydsvenskan
    10 / 10

    Translated from swedish: A display of storytelling
    - Michael Tapper

    Swedish: sydsvenskan.se »

  • 6. Fredrik Fyhr
    8.8 / 10

    Translated from swedish: It creates an image of a life, glides through the mysterious gaps, puts a finger on the vulnerability that the characters suffer from, but captures their humanity. It is a quiet feel-good, as intelligently made as romantically perceived.
    - Fredrik Fyhr

    Swedish: fredrikfyhr.se »

  • 7. Svenska Dagbladet
    8.3 / 10

    Translated from swedish: "Moonlight" is a unique three-act play about tenderness and love between black men on the shadowy side of American society.
    - Karoline Eriksson

    Swedish: svd.se »

  • 8. Aftonbladet
    8 / 10

    Translated from swedish: As a whole, "Moonlight" is still original and engaging, and for the Black Film in the US, its success is somewhat of a milestone.
    - Jan-Olov Andersson

    Swedish: aftonbladet.se »

  • 9. Filmeye
    8 / 10

    Translated from swedish: The film is not analytical, despite the complex subjects it addresses, and that feels good. On the other hand, the storytelling is sometimes simplified to the point of being "the story of the little boy in a tough reality".
    - Jan-Eje Ferling

    Swedish: filmeye.se »

  • 10. Göteborgs-Posten
    8 / 10

    Translated from swedish: "Moonlight" is primarily a universal depiction of the step from child to adult, of having the odds against you, of not having too many alternatives for life choices.
    - Mats Johnson

    Swedish: gp.se »

  • 11. Uppsala Nya Tidning
    8 / 10

    Translated from swedish: Poignant and poetic
    - Susanne Sigroth-Lambe

    Swedish: unt.se »

  • 12. Filmtopp
    8 / 10

    Translated from swedish: There are some special sequences that remain with me. These moments, which sometimes only last a brief moment, are deeply moving.
    - Sebastian Håkansson

    Swedish: filmtopp.se »

  • 13. Ergo
    8 / 10

    Translated from swedish: There is no moral to the story that tells how important it is to dare to be who you are. Life happens, and it's easy to reflect in retrospect on how brutally involuntary everything can feel.
    - Jonathan Schiess

    Swedish: ergo.nu »

  • 14. Kommunalarbetaren
    8 / 10

    Translated from swedish: This thought-provoking film handles difficult questions without simple answers with care. Of course, the fact that it is set against the backdrop of the most macho of macho environments gives the story an extra dimension.
    - Mats Gustafsson Hedenström

    Swedish: ka.se »

  • 15. SVT
    8 / 10

    Translated from swedish: The "Moonlight" best way is perhaps to depict the taboo of vulnerability.
    - Kristoffer Viita

    Swedish: svt.se »



World-Wide Box Office Revenue

Box Office

Moonlight has earned a total of 65 172 611 dollars from cinemas across the world (the global box office).

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