Article archive / December 1, 2016
Originally published: . Volume 7, No. 12. Source pages: 15.
In a way, this is a story about growing up, changing. In other ways it is a story about what doesn’t change. It accomplishes its ends by involving us in the life of Chiron, a youngster growing up in a black Miami ghetto.
The story opens by reminding us of the terror potential in being a child without a buffering adult presence. Chiron is fatherless, his mother a drug addict empty of mothering resources. We watch Chiron running pursued by a horde of tormentors. Bereft of a safe haven, he finds shelter in an abandoned building that his pursuers pelt with shouts and rocks while he cowers, flinching in fear. He is discovered by Juan, a drug dealer who becomes his father figure. Introducing a metaphor that will be re-evoked as the movie ends, Juan buys Chiron a meal, which the boy slowly finds the courage to enjoy. Juan then takes Chiron to his girlfriend’s home where the little boy is fed again, while the two grown-ups smile at his appetite. Being fed represents being loved and cared for, crucial psychological nourishment.
Days or weeks later, back in school, Chiron finds a buddy in Kevin, who tells him that the others victimize him because he appears weak. The two youngsters engage in a playful fight that Kevin initiates in an effort to bolster Chiron’s self-esteem.
In parallel, Juan continues to seek out Chiron, taking him to the beach and teaching him to swim. As they sit on the beach together, Juan tells the boy about his own childhood and about the importance of carving out one’s own path in the world. Juan is also the dealer who sells Chiron’s mother her drugs; when she and Juan argue about her not caring properly for Chiron, she angrily implies that the boy is victimized because he is a faggot.
The story jumps to Chiron’s teen years. Juan has disappeared, but his girlfriend continues to be a second mother to Chiron, providing him with food and at times, safety. The boy continues to be bullied by classmates, who mock his relationships with his two “mothers,” and threaten to beat him up if he persists in his weak protests. Later, during a moonlit night, Chiron visits the beach and is joined by Kevin. In the semi-dark, eased by shared marijuana, the two shyly explore each other’s hopes for the future, becoming increasingly psychologically and physically intimate.
At school, Kevin is pressured by one of his classmates, Terrel, a bully and trouble maker, to play a game of “Knock Down, Stay Down.” Terrel selects Chiron as Kevin’s target. After repeated blows to his face, Chiron is unable to get up, and is kicked and derided by the mob. The next day, Chiron returns to class, grabs up a chair and uses it to smash Terrel into bloody unconsciousness.
Chiron winds up in jail.
Ten years later we meet Chiron again, now living in Atlanta. He has used his jail time to build himself into a physically powerful man and has become a successful drug dealer, an emotionally driven identification with Juan.
Chiron gets an unexpected phone call from Kevin, who apologizes for the past. Kevin tells him that he has become a cook, and invites him to come to his Miami diner for a meal. Chiron accepts the invitation. After the meal, Kevin invites Chiron to spend the night with him. They begin to reflect on their past, and Chiron tells him that he has never let another man touch him. The scene fades out with Kevin tenderly cradling Chiron’s head against his shoulder.
Chiron has grown up. He is no longer a frightened victim. His growing up highlights the possibility of finding good psychological objects in a barren environment. It also reveals an on-going need for empathic others.
That doesn’t change.
What drives the story is its pressure on our empathic boundaries. Our coming to accept that, in the world Chiron inhabits, he has not just survived physically but has succeeded in finding a way to love and be loved.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.