This is a stark and dark movie about the challenges faced by youth in our depressed urban neighborhoods. It’s about how easily the spirit of a child can be crushed by his environment—by factors well beyond his control—especially a sensitive/different child. That describes Chiron, whose youth is chronicled in a cinematically interesting way through three distinct ‘chapters’: boyhood, adolescence and young adulthood. Three different actors portray the character, and screen blackouts that simulate the old ‘reel changes’ separate the segments. Set in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood, Chiron is tormented by bullying classmates. His single mother, while loving, struggles with addiction. I found the film difficult to relate to, not only because the world it depicts is alien to me. A movie should transcend that, drawing the viewer into its world. But the drama is disjointed—perhaps intentionally, just as this boy’s life is disjointed. Also, he grows up to be a very different man from his younger self, so different that it is not believable. On the plus side, the film is poignant and relatable in the relationship between mother and son, and in the pure human kindness shown by some of the people who impact Chiron’s life.
Should you see it? Since it’s an Oscar contender, you might want to. —D.W.
Viewed at the Tivoli Theatre