Juan takes Little under his wing and provides the fatherless boy with some much-needed mentoring. These are some of the questions that well be addressing belowso if youre curious for the answers, be sure to keep reading! But he doesnt have a Teresa, doesnt have anyone. Cant nobody make that decision for you.. At one point, after teaching Little how to swim in the ocean, Juan recounts a story from his youth about an old lady who said to him, "In moonlight, black boys look blue. I saw so much space in that to give myself over to the character. Kevin then comforts Chiron, letting down his wall, and the film closes with a shot of a young Chiron on the beach. We see them sitting on the subway, we see them in the corner, and we think I cant identify with the person I have nothing in common with them, and because we cant identify with them, they become invisible. A liquid cup and a solid cup are exactly the same size. The bullies throw rocks at the window before leaving. Things are tough in the hood, but no child is going to starve. When the main protagonist, Chiron, is chased by bullies through the street, Juan hides him in his crackhouse and saves his life. I wanted to just move the audience on and have them feel the shock and disorientation of the loss the same way I feel these kids in the neighborhood feel all the time. How he talks. And it changes everything. They shake hands, betraying their sexual chemistry. You have entered an incorrect email address! Once I made that decision, it opened up this world where I could really see how things manifested itself in the character and how it would manifest itself in scenes, and I began to have a much clearer path of working towards manifestation of that section of intersectionality. After school, Terrel and some other bullies wait for Chiron, who hesitates to leave. Hes a dope dealer, so theres that, too. Juan pulls off a wooden board from the window and finds the boy hiding. In the second part of the film, after meeting Juan, a teenaged Chiron no longer wants to be called Little. Because this section also includes Chiron's tryst on the beach with Kevin, which will become one of the most identity-forming moments in his life, it confronts the film's themes of love and its frustrations. Juan is a drug dealer in Miami, Florida. Its hard for a man of color walking those sun-bleached streets not to watch his back or feel that his days are numbered. How Did Flint Lockwoods Mom Die? While he is not gay, Jenkins saw a lot ofhimself in McCraneys character. How Did Cinderellas Mother Die? To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. a bat. A Cuban drug dealer, Juan appeared as one of the main characters in the drama filmMoonlight. At the screening I attended, the entire audience froze, as did the figures onscreen. While he can heal others, he can't heal himself. The blue of the ocean. Juans license plate exhibited the same message. The two talk about times they want to cry, and Chiron says he wants to do many things that "don't make sense." The motif of nicknames also persists into this chapter, echoing Juan's earlier story about when he was given the nickname "Blue." Its every queer kids revenge fantasy, but what follows is every queer kids reality: fight back, and youll pay for it; the power does not belong to you. Different circumstances, but not very different. Know the Reason Here! The audience is left to assume that Juan has been crucified by the inevitable, doomed life of any long time drug-dealer. Im not sure whats going to happen to Black a week later, a month later or a year later. He was the first Muslim actor to ever receive an Academy Award. In this world, which is framed by the violence to comebecause it will comeJuan sees a skinny kid running, his backpack flapping behind him. Still, Juan does hope, if only for Chiron. A younger Chiron asks Juan what a faggot is, to which Juan responds: A faggot is a word used to make gay people feel bad., No., says Juan. Thus, this scene underlines some of the film's overarching themes of masculinity and performance, as well as those of childhood games and their equivalent in the adult male world. After this, while on the beach at night, Kevin and Chiron share an intimate moment. After their communion on the Miami ocean, Juan tells young Chiron of a story from when he was a young boy living in Cuba. Even though I think theres very few people in general that can specially connect to Chirons experience, I think in some way all of have been the other, the person on the outside, maybe not persecuted to the degree that this young man is, but I think we all want to be loved and embraced and need connection and support and family and mentorship. The community I feel like, despite the fact that we were all struggling and everybody had somebody in their family that was going through what our mothers were going through, there was somewhere you could go where you would not getturned away. Remove the lettuce from the water and place it in a salad spinner to dry. BJ:That character is what the whole project is based off. Chiron lives for the moments when he can get away from his mothers countless recriminations and needs, and swim in the unfamiliar waters of love with Juan and Teresa. Its a vicious cycle, in which the characters are oppressed by everything but hope. Chiron continues to carry Juan with him until the very end. This causes Chiron to retaliate the next day by hitting Terrel over the back of his head with a chair during class. He tries to change the sheets on his bed there, and Teresa teases him, teaching him how to make a bed properly. Kevin pushes him on this, putting his hand on Chiron's back. The audience is left to assume that Juan has been crucified by the inevitable, doomed life of any long time drug-dealer. To be afforded a. Blue.. Yet, a few simple steps such as mindful eating, exercise, and focusing on whole foods can help you reach your weight loss goals and improve your overall health. Running around with no shoes on when the moon was out. Does Grafenwoehr have snow? Throughout the rest of the film, it is only explained through dialogue that Juan has died. Set in Miami, the film explores the many difficulties of Chirons lifefrom his identity to his sexuality. The only positive male role model in Chiron's life was Juan, who he seemingly builds his life after as an adult. Even Chirons own mother, Paula, notices the peculiar way he carries himself. Kevin was Chirons first and only sexual experience with a boy. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Which sentence from the story Embers of Moonlight best explains why the narrator has never before watched the end of the Night of Rebirth? After all these years, three periods define a vulnerable young adult Chiron who, above all, is still struggling with complex pent-up emotions. She also informed Juan Diego that his uncle would recover from his illness. Note: While dragging, type a distance at the command prompt to constrain the drag distance. Later, Kevin gives Chiron a ride home and asks if that was his first time doing anything sexual. With beautiful cinematography and powerful acting, its no surprise that the movie Moonlight won Best Picture at the Oscars. While Juans appearance in the film is very short-lived compared to the rest of the characters, the impact Juan has on Chiron is profound. But the moment of love doesnt last. However, in a world where everything can change at the sight of a knife or a gun, Chiron is doomed to live a predestined life, caught in a vicious cycle of antitheses. In Liberty City, Miami at the height of the crack epidemic, Afro-Cuban drug dealer Juan finds Chiron, a withdrawn child who goes by the nickname "Little," hiding from a group of bullies in a crackhouse. That was something when I read the play I just saw and believed this would have happened to him. Inside, in a dark, silent space, the kid stares at Juan, and Juan stares at the kid. Chiron was accepted by Juan, completely and effortlessly, as the divine ocean embraced them. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? They kiss, and Kevin gives Chiron a hand job. Juans saint-like words of wisdom continue to give Chiron assurance even after he was long gone. "I kept thinking about Juan and really missing that character," he said. As we watch, another movie plays in our minds, real-life footage of the many forms of damage done to black men, which can sometimes lead them to turn that hateful madness on their own kind, passing on the poison that was their inheritance. Why did you make the decision to exclude that from the film? Armed with more money for crack, Paula warns Chiron, "You're my child. Chiron learns Kevin is now a single father and content in life. Wait 15-20 minutes. Upon being called out, Juan hangs his head in shame in what is a remarkably, powerful scene. We also quickly learn that Juan has died in the space between the first and second chapter, a shockwave that we watch echo through Chiron's relationships with Kevin, Teresa, and Paula in this section. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. When Tarell originally wrote the piece, it was about him trying to honor the memory of that guy. Serve immediately after making the salad. Although Chiron is leery of the fact that another boy gave him a nickname, to avoid any implications of his sexuality, Chiron never did stop Kevin from calling him Black. This can be easily verified by measuring a cup of water in a liquid measuring cup and pouring it into a one-cup dry measuring cup: they take up the same amount of space. In an exclusive interview with theGrio.com, Jenkins shares why he decided to bring McCraneys story to life on film, talks about the intersections of sexuality, socio-economics and gender constructs, and explains why he hopes the film provides visibility to people who would otherwise go unnoticed. You can use sub-object selection to select drag candidates. The audience is left to assume that Juan has been crucified by the inevitable, doomed life of any long time drug-dealer. How Did Richard Fritz Simmons From Harlem Die? It also shows how complex the development of sexuality is, and this idea of the way boys treat each other. Chiron is the focal point of the story, but there is another character who stood out to me more than anyone else in the film: Juan. So when a classmate, Kevin (Jharrel Jerome), shows Chiron something other than hostility, it feels like a kind of fantasy. Not even just the story of Chiron, which is one thing very specific to this film, but even just in general in telling the story of what I think is this a very beautiful, complex place in the inner city of Miami. Kevin shrugs this off and starts sharing a blunt with Chiron. Though portrayed as dead in the movie, his immense influence lived on through Chiron, the main Protagonist in the movie. Thats the real shit.. But if it wasnt for Juan seeing something familiar, special, in young Chiron, if he hadnt shown the quiet little boy that someone can accept him unconditionally, Chirons future would have been trapped in despair. Later, he takes him to his house andintroduces him to his girlfriend Teresa. Chiron looks as if he means to pursue them but thinks better of it. Why did you decide to end it that way? But I can't help thinking he must have been lonely.