Free floating

Moonlight

Crit

I had heard good things about the "gay black coming-of-age story," but at the end of a week that seemed at times to be all about the differences between us, I saw a film about commonalities, about the human imperatives of love and protection, of belonging and defining your own space, of being yourself even if that involves radical reinvention. This is the most moving film I've seen in a long time, and one of the most beautiful I've ever seen.

And talk of its beauty has to include the remarkable actors who populate the film. The trio of actors who portray Chiron (yeah, like the Styx ferryman, but pronounced shy-RON), aka Little and Black, mesh into a thoroughly credible visual and emotional single soul, evolving but integral. Alex Hibbert is the 9-year-old bullied for his perceived effeminacy and weakness, and Ashton Sanders the high schooler still bullied but experiencing a delicious moment of requital of his love (followed by bitter betrayal) for Kevin (also tripled, nearly as effectively, by Jaden Piner, Jharrel Jerome, and André Holland).

When we meet the grown-up Black (Trevante Rhodes), the resemblance to his younger selves is evident, but it's overwhelmed by his adoption of the character of Juan, the prosperous drug dealer who had become his protector and father figure at 9. Juan is played by Mahershala Ali, and if you're a fan of House of Cards, you've seen enough of Remy Danton's half-clad frame to guess the physicality (and the insouciance) he brings to this role--and that Black brings to his own role of drug slinger at the same level of success.

Chiron's mother, Paula, veers the nearest to cliché of any character--the middle-class single mother dragged down by drug addiction--but Naomie Harris invests the part with the humanity required to get us to love her with just the undercurrent of hate that her son carries. And the pleasantest surprise is the screen debut of R&B's magnificent Electric Lady Janelle Monáe as Teresa, Juan's partner, who continues to provide a social safety net for Chiron after Juan's death.

A nearly perfect film.

Gimme Danger

Crit

Everything you wanted to know about the Stooges and then some, but as we knew from Danny Says (which, crap, I just realized I never got around to posting the blog entry on which LB collaborated, though if there's a live link there now, that means I finally have done) and from a featurette on the Criterion Repo Man disc, time spent with Iggy Pop is never time wasted, at least in the conventional sense of the phrase.

Trailers

• Free Fire--Wacky lawbreaking, great cast.