+10
All these arguments against Moonlight are precisely the arguments that I think the film successfully pushes back against; the efforts to put people OR films in little boxes... a Black gay man, a drug dealer, a gay movie, a coming of age movie... while the film is more interested in showing us that there are a thousand layers and facets to everybody. The film is more than a "gay" movie, whatever that means, and Chiron is more than a Black, gay, drug dealer... and whenever other people characters and the audience try to put him in little boxes, he pushes against that. Juan, a Black drug dealer, is the only one that ends up being a somewhat positive paternal figure to him, and he is the only one who challenges him to find himself and define himself ("You gotta decide for yourself who you're going to be. Can't let nobody make that decision for you") and through the course of the story, Chiron both embraces and challenges every stereotype there is about Black people, about gay people, and about supposed "tough guys". In that sense, there is a direct correlation between the events of the first two acts and what we see in the third act. I really don't know how one can miss that when you really pay attention to the film.