The Sun Never Sets

Our Verdict on The Sun Never Sets

Joe Swanberg's The Sun Never Sets is a quiet, patient film about a young woman who retreats to a remote Alaskan town to escape a life that collapsed under its own weight. Dakota Fanning carries the picture with the kind of understated performance that rewards close attention, her character's guardedness slowly yielding to the raw beauty of the landscape and the unpolished honesty of the people who live there. Jake Johnson and Cory Michael Smith fill out a supporting ensemble that feels lived-in rather than cast, and Swanberg's signature lo-fi naturalism suits the material perfectly. This is a film about the old-fashioned value of facing your problems rather than running from them, finding community through shared work rather than shared grievance, and discovering that the cure for self-absorption is often just showing up for someone else. There is no lecture here, no political thesis hiding under the surface. Parents can expect a movie that treats adulthood as something you earn, not something you perform.

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