''Box of Moonlight'' is a 1996 American

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

written and directed by

Tom DiCillo Thomas A. DiCillo (born August 14, 1953) is an American film director, screenwriter and cinematographer. Early life He was born in Camp Le Jeune, North Carolina. His father was Italian and his mother was from New England. He studied creative wri ...

and starring

John Turturro John Michael Turturro (; born February 28, 1957) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his contributions to the independent film movement. He has appeared in over sixty feature films and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers, ...

Sam Rockwell Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor. He is known for appearing in independent films and also as a character actor portraying a wide variety of roles both comedic and dramatic in films such as '' Lawn Dogs'' (199 ...

Lisa Blount Lisa Suzanne Blount (July 1, 1957 – October 27, 2010) was an American film and television actress, and Academy Award-winning producer. Early life Blount was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas, to Margaret Louise Martin and Glen Roscoe Blount, ...

and

Catherine Keener Catherine Ann Keener (born March 26, 1959) is an American actress. She has portrayed disgruntled and melancholic yet sympathetic women in independent films, as well as supporting roles in studio films. She has been nominated twice for the Acad ...

Synopsis

Al Fountain is a methodic and somewhat neurotic engineer. On the way home from work after leaving his construction site, he takes a side trip for

nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek language, Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", ...

's sake in the

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

area. There he meets Buck "The Kid", an eccentric character who gives him a new perspective on his life.

Cast

Production

Production was done mostly in autumn of 1995 in and around Knoxville, Tennessee on a thirty-five day shooting schedule and a budget of 3.5 million dollars. The

motel A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionaries ...

that Turturro's character stays at during his trip is a now closed but still there is a motel in

Maryville, Tennessee Maryville is a city in and the county seat of Blount County, Tennessee, and is a suburb of Knoxville. Its population was 31,907 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Knoxville Metropolitan Area and a short distance from popular tourist desti ...

, that is named the 411 Motel, on Hwy 411 in Maryville, TN(). The strip club used was "Bambi's" on the Alcoa Highway which is now called Ball Gentlemen's Club in Knoxville, TN(). Many of the scenes were shot in South Knoxville near Seymour, Strawberry Plains, Greenback, and Norris Lake and have been drastically changed since shooting due to mining, suburban development, and culture. The wrestling scenes that Al and The Kid watch were filmed during an actual

Smoky Mountain Wrestling Smoky Mountain Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that held events in the Appalachian area of the United States from October 1991 to December 1995, when it was run by Jim Cornette. The promotion was based in Knoxville, Tennessee, wit ...

event with Buddy Landell as the

good guy "Good Guy" is a song by American rapper Eminem from his tenth studio album ''Kamikaze'', released on August 31, 2018 via Shady Records. Recording sessions took place at Effigy Studios in Detroit. Produced by Illadaproducer with additional produc ...

and Headbanger Thrasher as "Saddam Insane" in 1995. Most of the in-town driving scenes were filmed in East and North Knoxville, Maryville, and Alcoa. Many of the routes are not consistent.

Influence and reputation

''Box of Moonlight'' has a

cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...

following among

and

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...

fans.

DVD release

The 1998 Lions Gate release includes a "secret" commentary by Tom DiCillo that is not listed on the packaging.

References

External links

* * *
Tom DiCillo Insightful Page
1996 films 1996 comedy-drama films 1996 independent films American comedy-drama films American independent films 1990s English-language films Films directed by Tom DiCillo Films shot in Tennessee Largo Entertainment films 1990s American films {{1990s-comedy-drama-film-stub