Black Box

Black Box is a 2013 drama film written and directed by Stephen Cone and starring Josephine Decker and Austin Pendleton. Plot Holly Pollard is in an undergrad student in a directing program at her college. She forsakes her advisor's direction to do a standard play for her first production opting instead to adapt a 1980s young adult novel called The Children's Reaper for the stage. The book is about a group of children terrified and abused by their seemingly overly-religious foster parents. Holly has had the book since she was a teenager and has written her name and the year 1993 when a young girl inside the front cover to signify the book belongs to her. Through rehearsals, we watch her young cast struggle with the material as they hone their performances. They have myriad reactions to the way the material and the rehearsals affect their real lives including their sexuality and personal interactions. Holly is also sleeping with Jarrett, who appears to be a Junior Advisor at school. Eddie is married with a pregnant wife. Adam is struggling with coming out. Brandon is openly and almost fiercely bisexual. Madeline admits that a kiss during a rehearsal was actually her very first kiss. Madeline also struggles with doing a nude scene. Eventually, during a drunken post-rehearsal party, Madeline asks Terra to make out with her while, elsewhere in the building, Adam and Brandon hook up and, within the next few days, seem to begin a relationship.