''Don't Come Back from the Moon'' is a 2017 American independent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by Bruce Thierry Cheung. It is based on

Dean Bakopoulos Dean Bakopoulos (born 1975 in Dearborn Heights, Michigan) is an American writer. He is a two-time National Endowment for the Arts fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and writer-in-residence at Grinnell College. Bakopoulos has a B.A. from the University o ...

' 2005 novel, ''Please Don’t Come Back from the Moon''. It stars Jeffrey Wahlberg, Alyssa Elle Steinacker,

Rashida Jones Rashida Leah Jones (; born February 25, 1976) is an American actress. Jones appeared as Louisa Fenn on the Fox drama series ''Boston Public'' (2000–2002), as Karen Filippelli on the NBC comedy series ''The Office'' (2006–2009; 2011), and as ...

James Franco James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. For his role in '' 127 Hours'' (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Franco is known for his roles in films, such as Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Ma ...

, and Henry Hopper. The film premiered at the

LA Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...

on June 20, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States on January 18, 2019.

Plot

Sixteen-year-old Mickey Smalley lives with his mother Eva and little brother Kolya. Their father, Roman, has become the latest in a line of men to leave the town without a trace. As his mother slips into despair, Mickey and his friends wonder what has become of their fathers.

Cast

*Jeffrey Wahlberg as Mickey Smalley *Alyssa Elle Steinacker as Sonya Stecko *

as Eva Smalley *

as Roman Smalley *Henry Hopper as Ray *

Zackary Arthur Zackary Arthur (born September 12, 2006) is an American actor, known for portraying the lead role of Jake Wheeler in ''Chucky'', a television continuation of the ''Child's Play'' film franchise, for which he was nominated for the Saturn Award ...

as Kolya Smalley *Hale Lytle as Nick *Jeremiah Noe as Uncle John *

Cheyenne Haynes Cheyenne Renee Haynes is an American actress, dancer, singer, and model. Her notable works include the Lifetime Movie Network television film, ''Lies in Plain Sight'', '' I Know My Kid's a Star'', '' HBO's Camping'', and '' CW's Lost Boys'' ...

as Jodie *Ambar Velazquez as Summer *Anthony Ontiveros as Val *Scott Crane as Budd Stecko

Reception

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 88% based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 6.90/10.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gives the film a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Joe Leydon Joseph Patrick Michael Leydon (born August 22, 1952) is an American film critic and historian. A critic and correspondent for ''Variety'' since 1990, he is the author of ''Joe Leydon's Guide to Essential Movies You Must See'' (Michael Wiese Prod ...

of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called ''Don't Come Back from the Moon'', "An artful and affecting mix of harshly defined specifics and impressionistic storytelling". Rex Reed of ''

The New York Observer ''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper printed from 1987 to 2016, when it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainmen ...

'' called the film "very small, with a very big emotional force that unfolds through the eyes of 16-year-old oy, which is "sensitively played by promising newcomer Jeffrey Wahlberg". Odie Henderson criticized the film's lack of importance, writing that "The Moon deserves better symbolism", while Sheri Linden of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'', praised the film for being "poignant and visually striking". Writing for the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', Robert Abele was quoted saying that "If ''Don't Come Back From the Moon'' isn't entirely successful, it means well as an engaged, considerate tour of a recognizably broken landscape". According to Jeannette Catsoulis of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', "The ilm'semotional potency is undeniable, its slow crescendo of wounded feelings and shimmering photography leaving unexpected imprints on the eyes and heart".

Accolades

*2017

Woodstock Film Festival The Woodstock Film Festival is an American film festival that was launched in 2000 by filmmakers Meira Blaustein and Laurent Rejto with the goal to bring high quality independent film to the Hudson Valley region. The festival takes place each fa ...

: Best Narrative Feature. Honorable Mention (win) – Bruce Thierry Cheung, Editing Award For Narrative Feature (win) – Joe Murphy

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 5249200 American drama films Films based on American novels 2017 drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films