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Apr 25, 2013 By John Everhart Amy Seimetz

Sun Don’t Shine, Amy Seimetz‘s debut feature as writer/director, is an often discomfiting yet gorgeously impressionistic film. Beginning with a roadside fight between couple Leo (Kentucker Audley) and Crystal (Kate Lyn Sheil), the template is established. Intimations are cryptic and exposition is spare, but the destination for the couple is a dark one, foreshadowed as Leo reveals to Crystal that on their trip to the Everglades, “We’ve got to take a route that don’t make sense.”

What follows is a nefarious take on the archetypal couple-on-the-run motif, rendered thoroughly beguiling by the terrific performances from Sheil and Audley. Sheil exudes a childlike wonderment and whimsy in her off-the-rails histrionics, while Audley projects a calm stoicism without masking his character’s vulnerability and fear.

Water’s a central metaphor in the film, as the muggy Florida environment becomes a central character, an elemental component that recalls Terrence Malick’s Badlands, heightened by sublime 16mm cinematography from Jay Keitel. But focusing on individual contributions is a disservice to the overall impact of the film. Seimetz corrals the disparate imagery and sparse dialogue into a piece of work that’s unsurpassably affecting in its depiction of broken dreams. (www.factorytwentyfive.com/sun-dont-shine/)

Author rating: 8/10