{"id":2845,"date":"2012-05-18T20:45:44","date_gmt":"2012-05-19T01:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/?p=2845"},"modified":"2021-08-26T10:38:29","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T15:38:29","slug":"sun-dont-shine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/18\/sun-dont-shine\/","title":{"rendered":"Sun Don’t Shine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indie actress and producer Amy Seimetz\u2019s first feature Sun Don\u2019t Shine <\/em>(2012) received considerable buzz when it premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March. Given Seimetz\u2019s acting background, it might be expected that the film would contain terrific performances, but, for me, the real surprise turns out to be the film\u2019s assured and poetic visual style. Sun Don\u2019t Shine<\/em> (you have to love the title) is a character study \u2013 a film noir-like road movie set in the intense heat and blazing sun of the filmmaker\u2019s home state of Florida. Seimetz has indicated that the genesis of the film was a dream, so it\u2019s little wonder that Sun Don\u2019t Shine<\/em>, which plays with a number of different genres including suspense and horror, feels very much like an extended nightmare.<\/p>\n

The film begins with a shot of a young woman aptly named Crystal (Kate Lyn Sheil). Her head jerks up into the frame against a pure blue sky, as she frantically gasps for air. She\u2019s in the midst of a violent scuffle with a young construction worker named Leo (Kentucker Audley). As she slaps and flails at him with dogged intensity, he defends himself by throwing her in the mud, knocking her down, and then shoving her up against the car. \u201cWe don\u2019t need to keep talking about this,\u201d he tells her, \u201cbut we need to keep going.\u201d Once they’re in the car, he tries to placate her with a kiss, but she accuses him of trying to strangle her. After a long stare, he apologizes for breaking her cell phone. Crystal takes off her blouse, dangles it out the window like a homemade kite flapping in the breeze, before eventually letting go of it.<\/p>\n

It soon becomes obvious that the pair are in some type of deep trouble. We\u2019re not sure exactly why, but it\u2019s clear that Crystal is not really helping the situation. Leo insists that they need to visit his friend Terry\u2019s bar \u2013 a four or five hour drive away. Crystal becomes jealous and accuses Terry (Kit Gwin) of being his girlfriend, which he denies. Once in the car, she wants to go to a motel room and make love to Leo. He\u2019s in a state of panic about the situation, and ignores her attempts at seduction. There\u2019s something very child-like about Crystal\u2019s responses \u2013 she appears to be regressing under the pressure and weight of events. She insists that he doesn\u2019t want to make love to her because she has a daughter and big hips, while Leo tries his best to ignore her remarks.<\/p>\n

As they argue, things get even more tense when their car overheats on the sweltering highway and an overzealous Good Samaritan (AJ Bowen) insists on helping them, despite Leo\u2019s protestations and attempts to get rid of him. As the film progresses, we learn incremental details of the missing back story, after strong clues are revealed in the glove compartment and the trunk of their car. I\u2019m not sure whether it ruins the film to know what has set this reckless couple on their road journey, but I won\u2019t say any more. Sun Don\u2019t Shine<\/em> contains a skeletal plot, but that\u2019s much less important than the interaction between the two main characters, which develops into an intense psychodrama.<\/p>\n

Kate Lyn Sheil has appeared in a number of recent indie films previously, including Alex Ross Perry\u2019s The Color Wheel<\/em>, Sophia Takal\u2019s Green<\/em> <\/a>and Joe Swanberg\u2019s Silver Bullets<\/em> and The Zone<\/em>, but this strikes me as her best performance to date. Her character becomes increasingly unglued as the film moves forward, causing multiple personalities to surface: an obsessed lover, a little girl with a love of mermaids, a highly jealous seductress, a liar, and a pretty scary person. There\u2019s something about how seamlessly she transforms into so many different people that\u2019s very unsettling, as if reality can shift on a dime. At one point, she shares her improbable fantasies of their future life together. She tells Leo, \u201cI want to go on a boat with you, or an airplane.\u201d When she looks forward to the two of them going grocery shopping together, Leo asks: \u201cWhat made you think of that?\u201d She responds: \u201cBoats?\u201d<\/p>\n

Crystal begins to read off the names of the various motels as they drive past them and reminisces about a mermaid theatrical show she saw as a child, as we see images of various motels, a peacock, and dazzling shots of fish and mermaids swimming underwater. As she continues to read the signs, Leo finally asks her to stop. She doesn\u2019t, but exults in a motel that happens to bear her name: Crystal Palms. But once they arrive at their destination, she becomes even more sullen, as jealousy kicks in, which is initially conveyed through close-ups on her face and very subtle movements of her eyes. Leo\u2019s attempts to help Crystal seem noble at first, but he has his own demons, which are only revealed once the two of them arrive at Terry\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

After a highly revealing sex scene, Leo insists that they go to the bar. Once there, Crystal tells him a convoluted story about a co-worker who stole her lipstick, but Leo simply gets up and goes to the bar for a whiskey as she trails after him and tries to finish her story. He again walks away from her over to the jukebox, but she follows and comes on to him as if nothing has happened and pretends to be picking him up for the first time. The scene suddenly becomes highly stylized as a result of colored gels. As country music plays softly in the background, you suddenly want to believe in their relationship, as they walk out of the bar with their arms wrapped around each other and their shadows reflected on the green grass.<\/p>\n

Sun Don\u2019t Shine<\/em> recalls a number of other movies \u2013 from Barbara Loden\u2019s Wanda <\/em>(1970) and Terrence Malick\u2019s Badlands <\/em>(1973) to Kelly Reichardt\u2019s River of Grass<\/em> (1994), but it only resonates even more as a result of the references it conjures up for the viewer. With an economy of means, Seimetz is able to create a remarkable degree of suspense. The film, which was originally shot in 16mm by cinematographer Jay Keitel, also contains lyrical and abstract passages that were shot both outside and inside the car. Early on, as it rains and the inside of the car steams up, Crystal draws a heart on the front windshield that slowly fades in the light. When Leo later drives off alone to rendezvous with Terry, the car lights illuminating the inside of the tent gradually dim and then disappear, turning Crystal\u2019s sad face into a dark silhouette.<\/p>\n

In Amy Seimetz\u2019s haunting debut feature, Sun Don\u2019t Shine<\/em>, geography and climate impact the core of its characters, suggesting that Florida is really a state of mind. Sadly, it\u2019s not love that binds these intimate strangers together, as they desperately try to navigate their troubled lives in a vast landscape of swampland under the harsh summer sun. Rather, it\u2019s a sense of mutual blame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indie actress and producer Amy Seimetz\u2019s first feature Sun Don\u2019t Shine (2012) received considerable buzz when it premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March. Given Seimetz\u2019s acting background, it might be expected that the film would contain terrific performances,Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2845"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2845"}],"version-history":[{"count":53,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4361,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2845\/revisions\/4361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}