Although Austin’s favorite festival is a major event for genre filmmaking, they also embrace traditional storytelling, a genre that focuses more on character transformations than torture or serial killers. There is a long history of creative screenwriters bringing their latest projects to this festival, and one of the most interesting things about this year’s program was the presentation of a new project by Chicago indie filmmaking legend, Joe Swanberg, who reunites with his most reliable collaborator, the star of “Drinking Buddies” and “Fire Drilling Team,” Jake Johnson. Arguing with co-stars Dakota Fanning and Cory Michael Smith, Johnson and Swanberg made for a drama that might be unbearable for those not interested in watching people try to figure out their relationship status for two hours, but its stars do a lot to elevate the dialogue that is admittedly overwritten. While “The Sun Never Sets” may not be my favorite Swanberg, it’s nice to have her back on the indie scene. Don’t wait too long for another one, Joe.
Fanning is charming as Wendy, Johnson’s Jack’s old girlfriend. He is divorced with two beautiful children, but he has been telling Wendy from the beginning that he is in a very different chapter of her life than she is. She doesn’t want more children; he doesn’t even want to get married again. And it’s worth noting that Wendy and Jack are different in more ways than the age gap—she’s out, even thinking about buying a boat; he is the child of the house. When Wendy’s last wheeling friend announces that she’s pregnant, Wendy creates a stir related to what sounds like the only thing for Jack, who has the dumbest idea ever: He tells Wendy to go play the field and make sure no one suits her needs better than him. He still loves her, but he doesn’t want her to feel trapped and resentful.
The truth is that Jack thinks Wendy will come running back, more confident in their relationship to ditch the version of himself that he’s not ready to ditch. He never planned for Wendy to meet her ex, Chuck (Smith). Wendy left Chuck years ago because she wasn’t mature enough to be strong, but she seems to have improved with age, a fact that sends Jack spiraling. He tries to be a boy who hikes, looks after her, falls in love with other people, and copes, but nothing seems to work.
Most of “The Sun Never Sets” features people talking about what they need and want in a relationship, sometimes in a false way. It’s one of those things where people often sound like they know what the next line is going to be and where the plot is going. However, what it sometimes lacks in dialogue, it makes up for in character detail and even visuals. Swanberg shot it on 35mm in Alaska (a nod to the land of sunshine in the title), and it looks a lot better than your average streaming game. Above all, Fanning and Johnson are remarkably easy to root for, the kind of actors who can make an ambiguous script feel smooth with the sheer force of their likability.
A very different kind of mind game emerges with Gloria Mercer’s successful performance “A Safe Distance,” a film influenced by Patricia Highsmith’s character-driven words that it even references directly Deep Waterand Ben Affleck’s recent film adaptation of it. It doesn’t quite come together as I had hoped it would in the final act, but Mercer has a strong eye, and directs the actors well, especially the lovable Tandia Mercedes, who holds the film’s central part together. A vividly personal film—you don’t need to read in the production notes that it was made because of the end of a “difficult relationship” to hear that in terms of storytelling—it’s a tale of two women who end up empowering each other in unexpected ways, even though one is a bank robber.
Bethany Brown plays Alex, a Canadian woman who goes on a camping trip with her skinny boyfriend Joey, the kind of guy who isn’t as shy as he is selfish. Getting the impression that he never asked what he wanted for dinner, he slowly realized that he really didn’t want to go to camp. When Joey actually proposes going on a tour, Alex turns him down. What does an injured male child do? He crept into the middle of the night, leaving Alex stunned. That’s when he arrives at the camp of Kianna (Mercedes) and Matt, a couple who are living outside the machines, in part because the authorities are looking for them for a series of armed bank robberies.
Before you know it, Alex has joined Bonnie and Clyde in droves, until he’s lured into a bank robbery, which Matt insists is a victimless crime as they take from insurance companies to cover the loss. The problem is that Matt is an elf, too, which could soon make him a third wheel.
Something important about the “freedom” of a life of crime is underwritten (although that’s sometimes the goal Matt gives is a bit much), and the final act has a few choices and twists that didn’t land on me, but a lot of “A Safe Distance” works. Not only is Mercedes a magnetic performer, Mercer captures her limited settings well, giving the film a beautiful, natural look. I think Patricia Highsmith would dig it.
Finally, there is Aisha Evelyna “Seahorse,” a well-intentioned drama that fails by not really committing to what I believe is its purpose: To make homeless people more than just figures in the news or people ignored on the street. Evelyna also wrote and starred, which often leads to problems in an indie game as there aren’t enough voices in the mix to work together harmoniously. I fully believe that Evelyna is willing to do something that feels good, but “Seahorse” disappoints by using a character who is out of the house in a way that feels trickier than the original, making her a person on the character’s journey instead of someone who feels like she has her own inside story and backstory.
Evelyna plays Nola, a Toronto sous chef who rises in the industry enough to have a really annoying boss. One day, while trying to escape the producer and taking out the trash behind his restaurant, he sees a figure from his past on the street: his estranged father. She begins a short-term relationship with the man as “Seahorse” flashes back to the past to reveal some of the reasons for their initial separation. As her new relationship threatens to ruin her career, she is forced to make difficult decisions about the man she thought she would never see again.
Also, “Seahorse” comes from such a real place that it feels absurd to descend from it, but filmmaking is as much about the execution as it is about the intention, and I believe that the front clouds will be here. I hope that Evelyna is willing to make a film about the brutal way we treat homeless people in the US and Canada through the lens of character research, but the honest truth is that I did not believe enough in the emotions of “Seahorse” because the people in it all felt like ingredients in that overcooked recipe instead of three-dimensional people.
