13 Moons

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13 Moons
13 moons dvd cover.jpg
DVD release cover
Directed by Alexandre Rockwell
Written byBrandon Cole
Alexandre Rockwell
Produced byBrandon Cole
Michael Din
David Kronemeyer
Starring Jennifer Beals
Elizabeth Bracco
Steve Buscemi
Peter Dinklage
Sam Rockwell
Peter Stormare
Cinematography Phil Parmet
Edited byJohn David Allen
Music byBrian Kelly
Kevin Salem
Distributed by13 Moons Productions LLC
Lot 47 Films
Release date
  • January 2002 (2002-01)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

13 Moons is a 2002 comedy-drama film directed by Alexandre Rockwell. The title is a reference to the saying of a minor character's mother, who suggested that if nights of the full moon are strange, then "this must be the night of thirteen moons." [1] [2]

Contents

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, 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

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes it has gotten 45% Audience Score. [1]

In 2023 review of the film, The Herald stated "“13 Moons,” from 2002, is not a good film, but it has a key insight that’s exceedingly rare in the filmmaking world. See, most bad movies end up that way because they tried to be good and failed. If being good was never the intention, though, strange new opportunities present themselves." [3]

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References

  1. 1 2 "13 Moons - Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. 2004-06-22. Retrieved 2023-08-11.
  2. "13 Moons (2002), PopMatters". PopMatters. 2004-07-12. Retrieved 2023-08-11.
  3. "2002's '13 Moons' Must Be Seen To Be Believed - The White River Valley Herald". The White River Valley Herald - Serving the Communities of Vermont's White River Valley Since 1874. 2023-03-02. Retrieved 2023-08-11.