A boy comes of age in achingly powerful Moonlight

Moonlight is as wistful a film as its title might suggest. Director Barry Jenkins, in only his second feature, has created a singularly powerful and masterfully restrained work of art about a young man's coming of age in South Florida told in three different stages - child, teenager and young adult.

This is no Boyhood, however. There are three actors portraying Chiron, and although it takes a bit of imagination to accept the three as the same person, Moonlight feels somehow even more poignant than that 12-year experiment. That's no small feat, and perhaps that's because of the power of the subject and its exploration of the gayness of an African-American man.

But Jenkins has also accomplished something truly extraordinary in that Moonlight feels as real and raw and vague and specific as a memory. That this all coalesces into a coherent and impactful story is a testament to his singular talent.