The 2017 Academy Awards will forever be remembered over the fiasco of accidentally naming La La Land as Best Picture of the respective year. However, behind the forgettable flub saw Barry Jenkins and Moonlight dominate the Oscars that night. The feature is about a boy named Chiron, and it chronicles three different chapters of his life growing up in Miami, Florida. It documents his journey through manhood in the midst of a poverty-stricken and broken world. The film was an intimate and beautiful portrait of a Black kid understanding his masculinity in a time when being gay wasn’t as widely accepted amongst the Black community. The cast of the independent film was top-notch, with Naomie Harris rightfully being nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Mahershala Ali winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Noticeably, Trevante Rhodes wasn’t nominated for his role as Chiron in the film. It’s shocking because the story of Chiron isn’t just masterfully told by the excellent writing, but by the body language and performances of each actor who portrays the young man. With each incarnation of Chiron you see the changes without the script telling you that he’s a different man. In the beginning, Chiron is just a little boy expressing himself despite growing up in such a cruel world. The kid is consistently bullied and lives in an environment with a mother who is addicted to drugs. He doesn’t have any guidance until Juan comes along. That allows him to start trusting people a little more, though he remains timid and shy over the world surrounding him.
When we go over to Chiron’s life at the age of 16, who is still the timid kid that we followed at the age of 9, but he understands that the world won’t exactly accept him for who he is, so he keeps to himself and tries to stay away from everyone else. He resents his mother, who’s deeper into her drug addiction. In fact, she actually forces money out of the young boy. What’s worse is that Juan is no longer there to be a positive figure in his life. Sure, his girlfriend is still around, but he’s not so connected to Teresa. For the first time, Chiron feels alone until he reconnects with Kevin. That’s when his moment of joy and realization about who he is comes full circle. He starts to truly understand his feelings and the world becomes a bit clearer until Kevin is forced to punch him until he drops. His trust in people again is lost, but his anger on the world finally boils over and after he clocks his bully with a chair multiple times, things change. No longer is he the shy kid who’s going to take the crap that he’s been forced to deal with.
All that leads up to adult Chiron, and Trevante Rhodes carries all the baggage and scars from his childhood. There’s still pain that lingers with Chiron, but he’s not the punk kid that takes the punches that the world dishes out to him. Rhodes is able to tell this story without much dialogue. Of course, it helps that we’ve seen the struggles that the young man has had to deal with, but we still understand his frustration and hurt because of the actor’s performance. The film is on Chiron’s shoulders so its insane to think that the Academy didn’t honor his performance with a nomination. That’s not to say that the actors nominated didn’t deserve their place, but Rhodes went beyond playing a gay man growing up in the hood. The complexity of his performance was aided because of the previous two stages that showcased Chiron’s upbringing. Now, on one hand, I could possibly understand why the Academy didn’t give him a nomination. All three actors who played Chiron were brilliant, and perhaps it’s likely the reason the voters couldn’t recognize a single performer because it’s under the guise of three different names. Still, it’s a crime that his name was essentially ignored for the 2016 feature as Moonlight needs to be carried on the shoulders all three men. Can imagine how hard it had to be displaying years of abuse and trauma through your performance alone? It’s definitely no easy feat and the newcomer manages to pull it off. Every year an actor is always snubbed for the prestigious award. Though he may not be recognized by the Academy as someone worthy of a nomination, fans and critics won’t simply forget his mesmerizing performance.
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