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The Light of the Moon

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2017 American film
The Light of the Moon
Official Poster
Directed byJessica M. Thompson
Written byJessica M. Thompson
Produced byJessica M. Thompson
Carlo Velayo
Michael Cuomo
StarringStephanie Beatriz
Michael Stahl-David
CinematographyAutumn Eakin
Edited byJessica M. Thompson
Music byDavid Torn
Production
companies		Stedfast Productions
Big Vision Creative
Distributed byImagination Worldwide
Release dates
  • March 24, 2017 (2017-03-24) (SXSW)
  • November 1, 2017 (2017-11-01)
Running time90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Light of the Moon is a 2017 American drama film written, directed, and edited by Jessica M. Thompson. It stars Stephanie Beatriz as Bonnie, a woman who was sexually assaulted in New York City and covers a six-week period following the assault and deals with the resulting impact on her and the changes in her relationships.

Plot

Bonnie (Stephanie Beatriz) is a successful architect living in Bushwick, Brooklyn with her boyfriend Matt (Michael Stahl-David) who works in advertising. He visits her at work to tell her he can't join her or her coworkers for drinks due to a last minute client meeting. Bonnie and her coworkers go out to a bar where she has many drinks as well as a little bit of cocaine. While dancing, a bar patron attempts to make inappropriate advances toward her. At the end of the night, Bonnie decides to walk home alone and puts on her headphones to listen to music. She is subsequently attacked by a stranger in a hoodie and taken into a back alley where he slams her head against the wall and rapes her. He then takes her driver's license and threatens her before running off. After a moment of shock, she regains enough composure to wipe herself with a tissue and walk home where she puts the tissues and her underwear in a bag and cleans up her head wound. Matt finds her sobbing on the couch and asks her what happened. She says she was mugged and asks to be taken to the hospital.

Bonnie returns to work because she's working on a large client, hoping it will help take her mind off of the incident. Her coworkers, having been told she was only mugged, cheer her up by telling her she's a badass, while her boss pushes back her meetings to give her more time to prepare. However, after some time, her boss feels she hasn't regained enough focus and reassigns her to a smaller client.

When another rape occurs in Bonnie's neighborhood, she is called in to the police station to look at a lineup. However, she is unable to recognize anyone as she never looked at her attacker's face. Outside of the police station, she is approached by the other victim and hugged. Not wanting to feel like a victim, she denies anything happened to her and walks away. Later, speaking with the local prosecutor, she learns that if the DNA from the second victim matches the DNA from her, it will be easy to put the assailant in prison. However, the prosecutor tells her if it doesn't match, it will be harder to get Bonnie's assailant in jail as Bonnie's intoxication could make her testimony less credible and the defense attorney in her district is notorious for getting sexual assailants light sentences.

Bonnie goes out drinking with her coworkers again. At the end of the night, her coworkers insist on walking her home. Bonnie gets defensive, believing that Matt had called and asked them to, which they don't deny, but she lets them walk her home anyway. Feeling the incident has become too much of a burden on both of them, Bonnie decides to move out of their apartment, much to Matt's sadness. She temporarily moves in with her coworker Jack (Conrad Ricamora). While staying in his apartment, she gets a call from the prosecutor that the DNA from her incident doesn't match that from the other victim nor anyone from police records.

After working late one night, Bonnie walks home and spots another girl walking with her headphones on. Bonnie confronts the girl in front of her apartment building and accuses her of being reckless, but the girl brushes her off as crazy. She returns to Jack's and breaks down. While Jack consoles her, her mother calls. She decides to reveal the assault to her mom with Jack present. She later gains the courage to attend group therapy again, and she finally returns home to Matt.

Cast

Release

The Light of The Moon premiered in March 2017 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, where it won the Audience Award in the Narrative Feature Competition and was purchased for distribution by Imagination Worldwide. Amazon has acquired the streaming rights to the film it will be released on the Amazon Video Direct platform in early 2018.

The film had a limited North American theatrical release in November 2017.

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's critical consensus states, "The Light of the Moon traces one woman's tortured journey beyond sexual assault with powerful empathy, marking writer-director Jessica M. Thompson as a talent to watch." Metacritic gave the film a score of 76 out of 100 based on 9 critical reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

The Light of The Moon was positively reviewed in both The Hollywood Reporter, which stated that "Beatriz and Stahl-David have a combustible energy" and in Variety, which said the film was "harrowingly effective" and "brutally frank without ever lapsing into exploitation. Sensitive without ever being sanctimonious."

Accolades

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipients Result
Calgary International Film Festival October 1, 2017 Best International Feature The Light of the Moon Nominated
People's Choice Award - Best Narrative Feature The Light of the Moon Nominated
London Film Festival October 14, 2017 Audience Award - Best Feature The Light of the Moon Nominated
Mill Valley Film Festival October 18, 2017 Audience Award - U.S. Cinema Indie The Light of the Moon Nominated
Best Narrative Feature The Light of the Moon
SXSW Film Festival March 14, 2017 Audience Award - Narrative Feature Jessica M. Thompson Won
SXSW Gamechanger Award Jessica M. Thompson Nominated
SXSW Grand Jury Award - Best Narrative Feature Jessica M. Thompson
Woodstock Film Festival October 14, 2017 Ultra Indie Award The Light of the Moon Nominated

References

  1. Felperin, Leslie (17 March 2017). "'The Light of the Moon': Film Review | SXSW 2017". The Hollywood Reporter.
  2. Evans, Greg (18 March 2017). "SXSW Audiences Give Top Honors To 'Light Of The Moon', 'Baby Driver', 'Dealt'". Deadline. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  3. Spangler, Todd (2017-05-10). "Amazon Acquires Rights to 40 Films From SXSW, Paying $1.9 Million-Plus in Cash Bonuses (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 2017-05-16.
  4. "SXSW Winner 'The Light of the Moon' Picked Up by Imagination Worldwide (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2017-07-03.
  5. "The Light of the Moon (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  6. "The Light of the Moon Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  7. Felperin, Leslie. "'The Light of the Moon': Film Review | SXSW 2017". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
  8. Barker, Andrew (13 March 2017). "SXSW Film Review: 'The Light of the Moon'". Variety. Retrieved 16 May 2017.

External links

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