Edgy ‘Moonlight’ Reflects Human Condition

Writer-director Tom DiCillo works in absurdity the way other men work in masonry or actuarial charts.

It was this flair for illogic that made his “Living in Oblivion” such a critical and popular success. When you make a comic, albeit fact-based, story about the making of underfunded independent film, you’re in the bizarro land already: Nothing should succeed. That it ever does is a testament to a chaotic universe. And that’s something nearly everyone can embrace.

At the same time, DiCillo’s deliberate absurdism was what made his first film, “Johnny Suede,” so off-putting for so many: Its self-delusional rock-star wannabe, even when played by Brad Pitt, was a hard hero to embrace, given how obtuse he was. And how unlikely it was that he’d ever emerge from his intellectual fog.

Where DiCillo lands with his third feature, “Box of Moonlight,” is somewhere between full-blown cognitive anarchy and an atoll of truth. His protagonist, the anal-retentive engineer Al Fountain (John Turturro), is the boss you love to hate, although it’s really too easy. Away from home, managing the installation of a rural power generator, he’s the type to start his crew on a new job at quarter to 5; he can’t tell a joke, or get one.

A humorless prig, he’s invited to play poker by co-workers who hope he won’t show up. His control-freak urges make his world much less benign, and his wife back home (Annie Corely) basically thinks he’s ridiculous (that a woman would marry someone she thinks is ridiculous just makes Al’s world more of a disturbing place).

But the thing is, Al knows he’s a jerk--he rehearses sounding casual when he’s by himself but then can’t pull it off. We see what the world doesn’t: that Al would like to change. And by putting us inside Al’s tidy but unhappy head, DiCillo makes us both sympathetic and complicit.

Al’s quasi-liberation from himself--you didn’t know this was coming?--arrives via Buck (Sam Rockwell), a Daniel Boone impersonator who lives in half a house trailer, deals in hot lawn ornaments and eats a heaping bowl of Hydrox and milk for breakfast. He’s off the grid, he tells Al, and is striving for total self-sufficiency--the kind of solar-powered, Mother Jones-endorsed existence that would be possible only with Al’s brand of technical expertise. Buck is as much of an anomaly as Al, but he’s a lot happier.

Their mutually enlightening exploits--imagine a comfortable territory somewhere between “Ulysses” and “Dumb & Dumber”--involve a swimming hole, a tomato fight, a bar brawl that doesn’t even get inside the bar and an encounter with two sisters (Catherine Keener and Lisa Blount). Constructing a contemporary parable on two contemporary types--the back-to-nature Buck, who hasn’t a clue, and the emotionally stifled Al, who can fix a car but has nowhere to go--DiCillo presents us with a two-sided schematic for the modern man.

Adding the flesh and blood are Rockwell, who’s hilarious, and Turturro, who gives Al a posture that says “kick me”--both of whom are quite fine and, as the movie progresses from its disoriented opening scenes, engaging and convincing.

The other jewel in “Box of Moonlight” is Keener, the most criminally underused actress in the business. As Floatie Dupre, a woman with a port wine stain and nasty lack of self-worth, she gives us a character who, like Al, is wrestling with a skewed sense of self. Convinced she’s not bright and too busy worrying about it to show that she is, Floatie is the flip side of Al--controlled rather than controlling, a casualty of misguided expectations.

Keener, like DiCillo, makes us believe in someone and something that’s elusive, perhaps a little closer to home than we care to loiter but that in the end--and after all the offbeat humor and Al’s robot walk--is pretty human. That’s unlike much else you’re going to see this summer.

* MPAA rating: R for language and some nudity. Times guidelines: adult language, situations, fleeting violence. Not suitable for young audiences.

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‘Box of Moonlight’

John Turturro: Al Fountain

Sam Rockwell: Buck

Catherine Keener: Floatie Dupre

Lisa Blount: Purlene Dupre

Annie Corely: Deb Fountain

Lakeshore Entertainment presents a Lemon Sky production, released by Trimark Pictures. Director Tom DiCillo. Producers Marcus Viscidi, Thomas A. Bliss. Screenplay by Tom DiCillo. Cinematographer Paul Ryan. Editor Camilla Toniolo. Costumes Ellen Lutter. Music Jim Farmer. Production design Therese DePrez. Art director Steve Brennan. Set decorator Nick Evans. Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes.

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