'Moonlight': A Retrospective on Barry Jenkins' Masterpiece
Barry Jenkins' masterpiece holds up as the story of a lifetime centered on the intersection of Blackness and gay identity.

Nolie has just turned 21 but is retarded and acts more like 8. While claiming that she only wants to help him, his "smother" actually likes things that way. One day Nolie visits his beloved grandfather in a rest home and is horrified at how the old man has deteriorated, vegetating in his wheelchair. He realizes that this is partly due to the medication the nurses are giving him. Nolie decides that he must rehabilitate Grandpa himself, since no one else cares. Furthermore, he and Grandpa must keep their project a secret. It's a job for a man, and time for Nolie to become one.
Barry Jenkins' masterpiece holds up as the story of a lifetime centered on the intersection of Blackness and gay identity.
The human experience is described through the eyes of a marginalized outsider, neither judgmental nor invested, just an observant donkey.
The tale of the Snyder Cut will undoubtedly go down as one of the most fascinating stories in modern film history. It is one of the rare times that movie fans were able to rally together and champion an issue so much so that it actually came to fruition.
This is not McDonald’s. This is something different.
Alongside A Drowning Man, I Signed The Petition, 3 Logical Exits, and A World Not Ours, A Man Returned continues to paint a realistic portrait of the Refugee Crisis that eschews the Western gaze and stereotype. These are real portraits painted by a director with lived experience, cultural connection and an amazing eye for visuals.
Battles will come and go and queer people do die for their identity and fights for rights, but that doesn’t mean the gays don’t deserve their happy endings in stories.