SXSW 2017: The Light of the Moon

One night, Bonnie goes out to a bar after work with her colleagues. She and her friends get drunk, dance, do a little coke… typical things young professionals do when they’re out trying to relax after a long day. She decides not to share a cab with one of her friends, insisting she’d rather walk home. With headphones on, completely unaware of her surroundings, she doesn’t hear her attacker coming until he’s grabbed her from behind. By then, it’s too late.

In The Light of the Moon, the first feature from writer/director/editor Jessica M. Thompson, we follow Bonnie through her journey dealing with the aftermath of rape. A New Yorker through and through, Bonnie tries to put on a brave face for those around her, even trying to keep her loved ones from knowing the truth about the nature of the attack. She tries to muddle through the best she knows how but, eventually, she has to come to terms with what happened to her.

Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) does a fine job maneuvering through the plethora of emotions Bonnie has to deal with throughout the film. There is good work here, too, from her co-stars Michael Stahl-David, Conrad Ricamora, and Olga Merediz. While I found the story a most important one to tell, the film just felt flat. All substance and not much style, although, that might actually have been the point.