Box Of Moonlight

Tom DiCillo, USA 1996, 112 minutes

Tom DiCillo had a hard act to follow after he left the ranks of Jim Jarmusch (he was the director's main cameraman). But, in Box of Moonlight, he seems to have established his position and rank in the American indie film field. That position and rank are far above those warranted by age or experience.

Box of Moonlight tells the story of Al Fountain (John Tuturro) who, while laying pipeline for his employers, discovers his coworkers' true opinion of him and his first grey hair. DiCillo makes this the final icing on the cake as Fountain undergoes a sort of psychological breakdown; his coffee pours backward and general hallucinations ensue. When his employers lay him and his team off he decides not to return to his wife and instead to retrace his roots in Americana. It is while he is roaming the countryside that he meets Buckie (Sam Rockwell). Meeting Buckie changes Fountain as he values things entirely different things to the solidly middleclass, white American Fountain and so Fountain finds himself reshaping his opinions and attitudes to life and the outside world. This is all thanks to the present the kid gives him: a box of moonlight.

DiCillo's script is as sharp as they come, full of witticisms and observations to make you laugh and cry Empire described it as "an all-talking, touchy feely road movie of sorts"! In its journey to find the self however, it makes close to the bone observations that apply to us all. One might even call this tale moralistic as it presents lessons for today's consumer obsessed society. It is not just a polemic though. Tuturro gives us an unbelievably fine performance as a man on the edge and Sam Rockwell as the forestdwelling hermit Buckie presents us with a character straight out of Twin Peaks, acted and performed faultlessly. Box of Moonlight is a wonderful and rare piece of cinema from the man behind Johnny Suede and Living In Oblivion. Go and see it or spend the next few days kicking yourself in frustration.

Review by Andrew Hesketh
Taken from EUFS Programme 1997-98