Wendy (Dakota Fanning, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, MIFF 2019) is 31 years old and happily in love with Jack (Jake Johnson, Safety Not Guaranteed, MIFF 2012), a divorcee in his 40s. The only snag in their age-gap relationship: she wants to have children, but he doesn’t want more than the two he already has; he’s also leery of getting married again. Hoping to inspire her to outgrow those particular urges, Jack proposes a six-month break in which she might dive into the Anchorage dating pool. What he hasn’t accounted for is the reappearance of Wendy’s handsome ex, a pilot who may prove less flighty than he once was.
The Sun Never Sets marks the first full-length feature in nearly a decade by Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies, MIFF 2013), an auteur who helped to forge the mumblecore lexicon – and launch the acting career of Greta Gerwig – with such heavily improvised and incredibly frank flicks as Hannah Takes the Stairs and Nights and Weekends. Though suffused with the same bracing candour and wit as those earlier, lo-fi ventures, Swanberg’s latest is captured on handsome 35mm film.
“A masterful portrait of humanity’s inability to figure out what we actually want at any given time … one of the mumblecore pioneer’s finest films.” – IndieWire
