At RIIFF, Lunar Sway Turns Mooncrest Into a Place Worth Getting Lost In

The moon may have been a waning crescent in early August in Providence, but the Apple Theater was under the spell of Lunar Sway, the new film written and directed by Nick Butler that screened as part of the 44th annual Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF). Lunar Sway follows Cliff (Noah Parker), a young man living in the town of Mooncrest processing a break-up with his painter ex-boyfriend (Kaden Connors) when Marg (Liza Weil) arrives at a yard sale with a note saying she’s his birth mother.

Its opening shot of red light on a desert cactus at night (incredibly well-shot by cinematographer Dmitry Lopatin) immediately welcomes the audience into the mystical southwestern world of the film. It takes place close enough to now for Cliff to have a cellphone and his dad to play videogames, but the news still plays on CRTVs and the shops in town still mercifully advertise with the soothing glow of neon signs instead of LED screens. A dream sequence later in the film (a visually mesmerizing stretch of images featuring a truly remarkably lunar landscape) has the visual noise of a VHS tape. The town of Mooncrest is a version of the southwest as you wish it was, as if the setting of a cult classic you rented years ago from a video store was somewhere you could really visit, even as Cliff is longing to leave.

Parker gives an engaging performance by playing Cliff as uneasy in his skin (hyper-conscious of the pimples on it) and reluctant to talk. He doesn’t have much to say to his mom (Irina Dubova in a scene-stealing role) and he seems pained when she has things to tell him, which makes it all the more compelling when he can’t stop talking to Stew (Douglas Smith) after a chance encounter at a urinal. It isn’t until Stew sings karaoke to him that he stops talking and lets calm wash over his face, creating one of the film’s most memorably tender moments.

Director Butler’s creativity abounds throughout the film, and is apparent in the occupations of our characters. Coming up with a job for a protagonist is tough (think of a movie not about the character doing their job and tell me what their job is), and Cliff working as a crafter of neon signs is inspired. It at once creates memorable images, lets the audience watch something they don’t get to see every day, and lends a thematic payoff to the film’s ending. Stew’s job? Cosmetic dentistry. One of them manipulates glass to communicate business, the other manipulates teeth to communicate identity. Lunar Sway is the only movie you’ll see this year where a neon sign crafter goes on a date with a cosmetic dentist — don’t let the opportunity pass you by.

As much as Cliff is looking to leave Mooncrest, the film is at its best when you get to explore it. It’s a town filled with interesting people, from the owners of the pawn shop, Cliff’s painter ex-boyfriend, the coyote outside, bartering reiki healers, and Cliff’s therapist (played by Neal Yu, responsible for the film’s biggest laughs). The moon shines bright on the desert, the neon glows red on the cacti, and the screen glows hypnotically over the viewer. Keep your eye on the moon.