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Box of Moonlight

Box of Moonlight

Comedy · Drama · 1996

Al Fountain, a middle-aged electrical engineer, is on the verge of a mid-life crisis, when he decides to take his time coming home from a business trip, rents a car, and heads out looking for a lake he remembers from his childhood. But his wandering takes him into the life of Kid, a free-spirited young man who helps Al escape from the routine of everyday life and find freedom to enjoy himself.

Movie details

Box of Moonlight

“Some people have a hard time unwinding.”

1996 Comedy · Drama 1h 52m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.1 / 10

6.3K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

59 %

Tomatometer

TMDB

6.8 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Al Fountain, a middle-aged electrical engineer, is on the verge of a mid-life crisis, when he decides to take his time coming home from a business trip, rents a car, and heads out looking for a lake he remembers from his childhood. But his wandering takes him into the life of Kid, a free-spirited young man who helps Al escape from the routine of everyday life and find freedom to enjoy himself.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Box of Moonlight?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Tom DiCillo

Written by

Tom DiCillo

John Turturro

John Turturro

Al Fountain

Sam Rockwell

Sam Rockwell

The Kid

Catherine Keener

Catherine Keener

Floatie Dupre

Dermot Mulroney

Dermot Mulroney

Wick

Lisa Blount

Lisa Blount

Purlene Dupre

Annie Corley

Annie Corley

Deb Fountain

Alexander Goodwin

Alexander Goodwin

Bobby Fountain

Court is in session

Put Box of Moonlight on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.