So it is with Barry Jenkins’s “Moonlight,” one of the most emotionally ample and comprehensively created movies I’ve seen recently. I confess, I hadn’t thought too highly of his first feature, “Medicine for Melancholy,” from 2009, but it left me impatient to see what he’d do next.

Welcome to "Conscious Movie Reviews." I'm your host Joy Davis and here to review the drama, "Moonlight." Set in Miami, Florida, it follows the main character, Chiron, go through three stages of his life under different nicknames. Even though his sexual orientation is not clear because the writer of this semi-autobiographical film doesn't want us to assume that Chiron is homosexual. It seemed secondary to what's most important for him - being an emotionally-responsible steward of his heart.

Moonlight is a 2016 coming of age drama (and romance) written and directed by Barry Jenkins, based on Tarell Alvin McCraney's unpublished play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue.
The film is largely centered around the character of Chiron, his burgeoning sexuality and his life in Miami starting as a shy child (Alex Hibbert), continuing as an awkward teenager (Ashton Sanders) and ending as a hardened adult (Trevante Rhodes).

First things first, this will not be a review. There are a million of those on-line and they are all glowing. They range from “it’s the best movie of 2016” to “we’ve never seen anything like this, done like this, before”. Also, the studio, A24 gave me a free movie ticket to see Moonlight, which is written and directed by Barry Jenkins, based on the play by Tarrell Alvin McCraney. While it will have zero bearing on what I write, I feel like it’s necessary to acknowledge. Thanks, booboo.

Barry Jenkins doesn’t like to talk much, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a lot to say. Jenkins is the slight, bespectacled director of the film on everyone’s lips these days: Moonlight. For once, it’s safe to believe the hype: Moonlight is just as extraordinary as the continuous stream of glowing praise it’s been receiving would have you believe.

The half-lovely, half-dangerous energy of two little boys running in the sunlight, moving together instinctively like a flock of birds. The exhilaration of learning to float in the ocean, gently released from loving grownup arms.

The article discusses presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway's accidental announcement of the film "La La Land" as winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture after being given the wrong envelope. Topics include "La La Land" producer Jordan Horowitz's announcement of the mistake and the film "Moonlight" as the winner, the status of "Moonlight" as the first LGBT-themed film and the first without any white cast members to win Best Picture, and Muslim actor Mahershala Ali's award for Best Supporting Actor.

The article discusses an increase in diversity among Academy Award nominees and recipients for 2017 resulting from the OscarsSoWhite protest movement in 2016. Topics include the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' recruitment of 683 new members, many of them women and people of color, in 2016, the Academy's implementation of mandates allowing the Academy to cut voters who had become inactive in the film industry, and the 2017 Academy Award nomination of the films "Moonlight," "Fences," and "Hidden Figures" for Best Picture.

Moonlight, about a young African-American man struggling with a troubled childhood and his own sexuality, has been named Best Picture of the Year by the Toronto Film Critics Association. Mahershala Ali was named Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film.