Film Review: Amy Seimetz Offers Startling Debut in ‘Sun Don’t Shine’

CHICAGO – Every once in awhile, a year feels like it just belongs to a certain actor or actress. 2011 was the year of Jessica Chastain. It looks like 2013 could be the year of Amy Seimetz. She’s starring in the now-playing (and brilliant) “Upstream Color,” will appear on HBO’s “Family Tree” and AMC’s “The Killing” in the next few months, stars in the indie “Be Good” and acclaimed horror film “You’re Next,” and, this week, her directorial debut, “Sun Don’t Shine,” lands on VOD and in NY theaters before an expansion later this year. Like seemingly everything that Seimetz touches lately, it’s great. Confident, stylish, and with a remarkable sense of place, “Sun Don’t Shine” truly works.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

“Sun Don’t Shine” opens with a fight. Crystal (Kate Lyn Sheil) and Leo (Kentucker Audley) are clearly under an immense amount of stress and not handling it well. As they argue over who started the fight and how intense it got, it becomes clear that Seimetz is jumping into her story in a unique place. Whatever sent these two on their combative road trip would typically be the first-act centerpiece of a drama but Seimetz cracks her narrative slowly, revealing the dark past and reason for the trip of her two characters one gruesome piece at a time. We see the fight, a tense roadside encounter, a gun in the glove compartment and something worse in the trunk. The dialogue is cryptic — “We can’t go to a motel. We got too much to do. We got to get to Terry’s bar by sunset.” — but indicative of past problems being fled and the likelihood of more problems in the future.

Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Sun Don’t Shine” in our reviews section. [10]

Crystal and Leo are likely to bring back echoes of Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen in Terrence Malick’s “Badlands.” He is shirtless, stubbled, and looks older than his partner with the innocent face. (Seimetz also uses poetic narration and loves the natural look of her landscape in ways that echo Malick.) Leo is also clearly in charge in the relationship as Crystal is constantly trying to get his attention. After a fight, she offers they should go to a motel room to make love. After escaping a situation, she tries to go down on him. She’s more nervous about him finding sexual satisfaction with another than she is about what it is that has sent them fleeing across Florida. Leo is distant and practically dismissive of the needy Crystal. It begs the question as to why they’re together in the first place. They probably shouldn’t be but a joint secret makes a break up impossible now.

Continue reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “Sun Don’t Shine” review. [10]

Sun Don’t Shine
Photo credit: Sun Don’t Shine