Underplayed Gems

Box of Moonlight (1996)

Box of Moonlight poster
Directed by
Tom DiCillo
Genre
drama film, comedy film
Country
United States, Japan
Runtime
1h 50m
Rated
R
Rating
6.8 of 10 from 78 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

An uptight engineer travels to Tennessee for a job that gets canceled. He meets a free-spirited young man who takes him on a series of small adventures in the countryside.

whimsicalreflectivegentlequirkyoffbeatwarmslow-pacedbittersweet

What happens

Box of Moonlight is a 1996 American independent deadpan buddy comedy-road film directed and written by Tom DiCillo and produced by Thomas Bliss and Marcus Viscidi. Set in the East Tennessee countryside, the film follows everyman Al Fountain (portrayed by John Turturro), an uptight electrical engineer who is assigned by his employer as the construction foreman of a factory under construction in Tennessee, leaving his estranged son Bobby and wife Deb (portrayed by Annie Corley) behind in their Chicago home. The factory project is later called off shortly after Al's arrival in Tennessee. Al returns to his hotel room to discover a strand of gray hair, prompting him to breakdown. He later drives a rental car to nearby lake from his childhood and encounters a young hillbilly, the Kid (portrayed by Sam Rockwell), that takes Al on an adventure through the nearby countrysides and towns to help Al find a new perspective in life. Filming took place on location in and around the city of Knoxville, Tennessee during a 35-day period in the fall of 1995, on a budget of $3.5 million. The film premiered on August 30, 1996 at the Venice International Film Festival and opened to American audiences at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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