Stonewall

"Where Pride Began"

2015 2h 9m EN

😐

6.0

MID

🥫

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

5.4

IMDB

★6.0TMDB · 150🥫9%Rotten Tomatoes●30Metacritic★5.4IMDB · 4,550

DramaHistory

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Kicked out by his parents, a gay teenager leaves small-town Indiana for New York's Greenwich Village, where growing discrimination against the gay community leads to riots on June 28, 1969.

“Where Pride Began”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Jeremy Irvine
Danny Winters
Jonny Beauchamp
Ray / Ramona
Joey King
Phoebe Winters
Caleb Landry Jones
Orphan Annie
Matt Craven
Dep. Seymour Pine
David Cubitt
Coach Winters
Vladimir Alexis
Cong
Ben Sullivan
Quiet Paul

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Roland Emmerich
Writers: Jon Robin Baitz
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 1% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 11 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Roland Emmerich, shot by Markus Förderer. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Rob Simonsen. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Adam Wolfe shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Jeremy Irvine and Jonny Beauchamp and Joey King carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Where Pride Began".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt3018070 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Roland Emmerich directs. Markus Förderer behind the camera. Rob Simonsen scores. Adam Wolfe cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Earned back only 1% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
2Released 11 years ago.
3Directed by Roland Emmerich, shot by Markus Förderer. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Rob Simonsen. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Adam Wolfe shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Jeremy Irvine and Jonny Beauchamp and Joey King carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Where Pride Began".
8IMDB entry: tt3018070 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 10 themes, including "new york city", "alternate history", "lgbt", "stonewall riot".

The technical file

Cinematography: Markus Förderer
Original score: Rob Simonsen
Editing: Adam Wolfe
Production design: Michèle Laliberté
Costume design: Simonetta Mariano
Makeup / hair: Kathya Portillo
VFX supervisor: Thomas Chesny
Stunt coordinator: Patrick Kerton
Runtime: 129 min · 2h 9m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $13,500,000
Box office: $187,674
Return: 1% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Stonewall (2015)
Rotten Tomatoes: 9% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 30/100
IMDB rating: 5.4/10 · 4,550 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

4 nominations total

Also by

Roland Emmerich

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2026-02-25
★ 6/10
I think Roland Emmerich’s mistake here was tying this story so specifically to Stonewall. Had he just left it as an Armistead Maupin, “Tales of the City”, type of structured drama then it might have worked more convincingly. It centres around “Danny” (Jeremy Irvine) who has been ostracised by his rural community and his own family after he was caught fooling round with his pal “Joe” (Karl Glusman) by two of their friends who wasted no time in sharing their discovery amongst their schoolmates. Evicted, he moves to New York City with little more than a suitcase and makes for the Stonewall Inn. Once there, he encounters a potpourri of characters who welcome him, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, and where “Ray” (Jonny Beauchamp) tries to help him get out from under his cardboard bedding and perhaps begin the process of fitting in/coming out. What now ensues is quite a messy drama that tries to be all things to all people, and to define a fairly volatile time in American history, but really ends up paying lip service to an whole gamut of stereotypes. The thing about stereotypes, though, is that they do usually have their roots in some element of truth and so some of the intolerance and bigotry on display here rings just as true as stories of police brutality - which was applied fairly indiscriminately, and of the venal attitude of organised crime. I’ve never been a fan of the concept of the LGBTQ etc. community as it often just ends up being some sort of anti-straight alliance that insists on trying to create a sense of community from a collection of individuals whose only common feature is not conforming to heterosexual norms, and I thought this did go some way to remind us that just because you are white and wholesome doesn’t mean you have any easier a ride than someone of colour, perceived to be from the wrong side of the tracks. The fact that “Danny” is a butter-wouldn’t-melt type, who is not lacking in courage, is a story worth telling in it’s own right. Homophobia isn’t an American thing - just read Quentin Crisp or Oscar Wilde, nor does it care about the colour of your skin, and as the film builds to what I thought was a reasonably historically accurate denouement, I felt it did take a topic that was still borderline taboo ten years ago and present the absurdity of discrimination and the frustrations and iniquities faced by those discriminated against into a mainstream that allowed people without any personal skin in this game to watch and evaluate for themselves. It’s not great, far from it, but even though he was given a very restricted role to play, I felt Irvine did well in taking this to new eyes and ears, and to be honest the die-hard queers and trans lobby were probably never going to appreciate this, anyway.

Production companies