''13 Moons'' is a 2002 comedy-drama film directed by

Alexandre Rockwell Charles Alexandre Rockwell is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and professor. Life and career Alexandre Rockwell is best known for his independent films made in NYC with a small group of actors he met on the lower east side in ...

. The title is a reference to the saying of a minor character's mother, who suggested that if nights of the

full moon The full moon is the lunar phase when the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth's perspective. This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon (when the ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180°). This means ...

are strange, then "this must be the night of thirteen moons."

Plot

The film opens with a clown (Buscemi) whose wife (Beals) and stripper girlfriend (Parsons) just discovered each other's existence. When his wife is jailed for trying to run him over, the stripper, the clown and his partner (Dinklage) contact a bail bondsman (Proval) whose wife just left their sickly son Timmy (Wolff) in his care. On the way, they are accosted by a crazed drug addict named Slovo (Stormare) who is hit by a car soon after. At the jail, the five meet up with an angry record producer (Mitchell) and the girlfriend he believes to be pregnant (Rollins) whom he plans to make a star, despite her protestations of not having any talent. Also along for the ride are two priests (Vince and Williams), one of whom has begun to doubt the wisdom of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, and who are trailing to bail out a third priest (Messina) who was goaded into a fight by the proprietor of a strip club (Rockwell). When the nine characters intersect, they discover that Timmy has a defective kidney and is slowly dying. However, he has just been paged, as there is a donor at the hospital: Slovo. The three caring characters immediately take Timmy to the hospital, with the others in pursuit. By the time they arrive, Slovo partially recovered and escapes to wander the streets, cheerfully ignoring his internal bleeding and must be tracked down, before both he and Timmy die.

Cast and characters

Jennifer Beals Jennifer Beals (born December 19, 1963) is an American actress and former teen model. She made her film debut in '' My Bodyguard'' (1980), before receiving critical acclaim for her role in ''Flashdance'' (1983), for which she won NAACP Image A ...

as Suzi *

Elizabeth Bracco Elizabeth Bracco is an American actress best known for her role as Marie Spatafore, the wife of Vito Spatafore, on the HBO TV series ''The Sopranos''. Early life Bracco is the daughter of Eileen (née Molyneux) and Salvatore Bracco, Sr. Sh ...

as Louise Potter * Steve Buscemi as Bananas The Clown *

Peter Dinklage Peter Hayden Dinklage (; born June 11, 1969) is an American film, television and stage actor. He received international recognition for portraying Tyrion Lannister on the HBO television series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019), for which he ...

as Binky * Daryl Mitchell as Lenny *

Karyn Parsons Karyn Parsons Rockwell (born October 8, 1966) is an American actress, author and comedian. She is best known for her role as Hilary Banks on the NBC sitcom ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'' from 1990 to 1996. Parsons also starred in the 1995 film ' ...

as Lily *

David Proval David Aaron Proval (born May 20, 1942) is an American actor, known for his roles as Tony DeVienazo in the Martin Scorsese film '' Mean Streets'' (1973), Snooze in '' The Shawshank Redemption'' (1994), Siegfried in '' Four Rooms'' (1995) and as ...

as Mo Potter *

Rose Rollins Rose Rollins (born April 30, 1981) is an American actress. She is known for her role as Tasha Williams in the Showtime (TV network), Showtime drama series, ''The L Word'' (2007–09) and as Valerie Anderson in the American Broadcasting Company, AB ...

as Sanandra * Peter Stormare as Slovo *

Pruitt Taylor Vince Pruitt Taylor Vince (born July 5, 1960) is an American character actor. He became best known for his roles in the films '' Shy People'' (1987) and ''Mississippi Burning'' (1988). He also appeared in ''Jacob's Ladder'' (1990), '' Nobody's Fool'' ...

as Owen * Gareth Williams as Thad * Austin Wolff as Timmy *

Francesco Messina Francesco Messina (15 December 1900 – 13 September 1995) was an Italian sculptor of the 20th century. Biography and career Francesco Messina was born at Linguaglossa in the Province of Catania from a very poor family. Growing up in Genoa, where ...

as Robert *

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'' (19 ...

as Rick *

Matthew Sussman Matthew Sussman, also known as Nathan Price, is an American actor, photographer and documentary filmmaker. Early life Sussman graduated from Brown University and was trained at the Yale School of Drama. Career Sussman has appeared in numerous ...

as Doctor Monroe *

Lester Speight Lester Speight (born August 28, 1963), also known as Rasta, is a former American football player who has had subsequent careers as a professional wrestler and then actor. He achieved significant recognition for his portrayal of '' Terry Tate: Offi ...

as Vincent

References

External links

* * 2002 films 2002 comedy-drama films American comedy-drama films 2000s English-language films Films directed by Alexandre Rockwell Gold Circle Films films 2000s American films {{2000s-comedy-drama-film-stub