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 an 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. William Peters the author of the book comes to rehearsals. While walking together with Adam their discussion leads Adam to wonder if the older man is also gay. When one of the actors is sick, he helps with a scene but he seems overwhelmed and has to stop. He continues to stay in town and come to rehearsals often nitpicking at Holly's way of presenting the adaptation. Eventually it is obvious that the source material is autobiographical and seeing it performed is causing Peters great mental anguish. On opening night a girl brings Brandon flowers backstage although he insists it is not what is seems. Holly hears Madeline's family discussing how they should look away during a part of the performance. Peters leaves on a plan without seeing the performance. Overall, the performance goes well. Seemingly a few days later, at home, Holly opens her worn copy of the novel we have seen her carry throughout the production. Under where she has written her name and 1993, the author has written his name, William Peters, and the current year, 2013.
Though a critics' poll by Indiewire named it the seventh best film of 2013 to remain undistributed, Black Box was eventually picked up by Devolver Digital Films for a cable/VOD release in late 2014.
Reception
Despite a limited release, Black Box received a very positive response from critics. Newcity's Ray Pride called the film "ambitious" and praised Pendleton's performances as "ever-fascinating." Paul Bower of the online magazineTiny Mix Tapes further lauded the film, saying "Preparing a play, rehearsing and fleshing out the writing, forces its participants to get super vulnerable and face things about themselves in front of a group of other people that can cause all sorts of embarrassment if done in a hostile environment. The great thing about Stephen Cone’s Black Box is that it understands this terrifying thing about doing theater to such a devastating extent that the film can, rightly, become hard to watch at times." Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 3½ out of 4 stars, calling it "a worthy follow-up to Cone's previous film" and adding, "I hope Cone keeps writing and making movies because he has what a lot of other writer-directors do not: an interest in character; a facility for drawing fine, subdued on-camera work from stage performers; and a knack for pulling together a variety of sympathetic characters at a crucial point in their collective lives."
