Chiron’s Lifelong Search for Love Anonymous College

The film Moonlight explores its themes of love in seemingly opposite manners: the absence and aching for love, as well as the impact that even a little bit of love can have for someone. The movie follows its protagonist, Chiron, through three different stages of his life, from childhood, to adolescence, and finally, adulthood. In each segment of the film’s three act structure, the movie nonverbally demonstrates to the audience that Chiron is searching for love of any kind, to any extent. Brian Tallerico’s review of the film for the Roger Ebert online publication lauds Barry Jenkins’ direction of such nonverbal moments: he writes, “While there’s memorable dialogue in “Moonlight,” it’s what’s unsaid that really resonates” (Tallerico). He explains that the most emotionally impactful moments of the film are executed by the what the actors do, rather than what they say, to embody the deep connections between these characters and show that “it is human connection that forms us, that changes our trajectory and makes us who we are” (Tallerico). Indeed, these visual cues come in two forms: there is one manner in which these nonverbal moments are moments of silent acting, where a glance can mean so much more than a glance, and the way...