Ultimately, it is about redemption and survival, which are both highly positive themes. I liked the ending.
And I don’t think Chiron is gay. This was not a movie about gayness. It was a movie about the importance of positive and nurturing physical contact combined with trust. Trust is everything, especially for people who have found the world hostile and dark.
And I really like that aspect of it: that there was no preaching, merely telling, merely relating. There was no politics there, even if it is safe to assume Hollywood read the politics into it.
It is perhaps both poignant and appropriate that there should have been such a fuck-up at the Oscars. Barry Jenkins never thought he could get there in the first place. He got there only as a result of an extended act of faith, courage, and putting one foot in front of the other and hoping for the best.
And he gets there, and wins, and gets his thunder stolen. But he still won. Whatever the shit was that happened on the way, and when he got there, he still found redemption and acceptance of his vision in the end.
We all get hit. Many of us get kicked on the ground. But there is no use dwelling on all that. There is still much goodness, much love, and much reason for hope in this world. Perhaps it comes in small doses at irregular intervals, but this is still God speaking in this stony world.