User reviews

A compelling film. This film really touched my heart. While the film is certainly far from perfect, I thought it dealt wonderfully with the subject matter and showed such a sensitivity towards not only victims of violence but also towards how scars incurred in childhood can mar us forever.

Gabriel Mann was awesome in this. He gave the role such a conscience and it was nice to see him used fully as an actor as opposed to his rather less than full role in 'High Art' (which I happen to love nonetheless). But whereas High Art was Radha Mitchell and Ally Sheedy's film, this film really, for me, belonged to Mann. Kim Dickens did a great job also, but Mann still takes top billing in my book. My hat off to Allison Anders - it's nice to know that there are filmmakers out there that are not so concerned with commercialism as they are with substance and exploration. The fact that it says that the film is semi-autobiographical just makes me applaud her more. If you're into character studies and the way the past effects ones life, this is a movie worth seeing.

I've seen. Slow and painful this story gets into the psyche of the victims unlike most other stories treating the same subject. The stories and writing style of Joyce Carol Oates came to mind through the intentionally slow, methodical pacing revealing each layer of the painful retelling of the victims' stories.

Arquette gives a brilliant performance as does Cheedle and Stoltz. Gabrielle Mann comes off a little too 'waah, waah, Mr. Sensitive author' but there's an honesty that rings true in his performance and works nicely with the others.

I think the only way this movie could improve is to perform it on stage. It has an intimacy that could resonate much more effectively then on the screen. All in all, I highly recommend it.

I tend to prefer character-driven movies with strong plots. In that sense, this movie score highly. Kim Dickens turns in a passionate performance as a self-destructive women trying to reclaim her soul after it was taken from her in an adolescent rape. Don Cheadle turns in yet another great performance. Wow, what a great actor. Eric Stoltz has little screen time, but he does a lot with it. Again, what a great actor.

This movie suffers a little on the technical front. There are scenes that could have been edited out because they failed to enhance the story line. At times the direction seemed to be a lackluster. Neither of these hurt the movie that much, but it does not quite reach its full potential. It is still worth seeing. I enjoyed it.

I was lucky enough to see this film at the Sundance film festival, where we gave Allison Anders a 5 minute standing ovation for what she's done with this film. The story is deceptively simple- a rock and roll chick who is pretty messed up for reasons that become clear when she hooks up with a young journalist- but it's the feelings that pierce and soar in this film. But it's not just a woman's story, the young man is also searching for (dare I say it) redemption. Filled with wonderful performances (why isn't Kim Dickens a star yet?) and even better cameos (Don Cheadle, Eric Stolz) this is a film that needs to be seen. One of the first, only, films that deals with sexual abuse and trauma and healing in a way that is both riveting and repulsive. And it has a great sound track! Go and see it!

this movie is a real gem.

the story revolves around a young female singer who is starting to become famous and get some notoriety and comes to the attention of a rock and roll magazine.

the song that is making the charts is a song about the rape of this women. the woman, shelly played by kim dickens does not remember this act that changed her life so drastically.

coincidentally, a reporter at the magazine, owen, played by gabriel mann, knows shelly from back at the time of her rape, and is assigned to get s story on sherry.

things behind the sun is a movie of such deep feeling, heart, tragedy, and unconsciousness that it seems amazing that the performances could be so stellar and clear and the direction so perfect.

the story is one that really gets one thinking on a lot of different levels, and while i wondered about the reality of shelly's life, and how close that might be to the reality of a woman in that situation, it does not matter, because this movie catches ones thoughts in a very suspenseful way, without being cheap or exploitive. in terms of the story it is a work of genius in its ability to wind through the suspense and not take the low road anywhere.

great performances, great speculative story, and excellent music and all around authentic feel. at the end of this movie during the credits a song called "things behind the sun" is played over the credits that is so haunting that i had to find out what it was look it up and buy it. in case anyone is interested it is things behind the sun by nick drake, who apparently died when he was 24.

for what this movie is, it is perfect, and i rated it a 10, which is hard to do. what it loses in speculation, it makes up in sheer guts and courage to make this story.

"Things..." tells of a thirty-something club singer and alcoholic who still suffers the trauma of a rape at age 14 and the attempt of an unwilling participant in the rape (sound unlikely?) to seek a belated resolution to his misdeed. The film doggedly pours over the suffering of the victim, her trauma and its manifestations, while building a weak story with little to offer save some insights into the matter of stranger rape victim issues. A nominal drama and tour de force by Dickens, this flick suffers from some questionable behavior and an all too obvious agenda owing to the passion of the director, a rape victim herself. "Things..." makes one maxim clear: Film makers wanting to make a statement about their personal issues should make documentaries.

...is something Allison Anders expresses in her films, and wow, filming in the house where she herself was raped as a child shows her engagement with the movie. It's her compassionate and tough look at how many lives rape irreversibly affects. Films about rape or child molestation aren't probably going to be box office smashes anytime soon, but don't deny yourself this beautiful film just because the subject material is uncomfortable. Great dialogue, strong acting (especially by Kim Dickens and Don Cheadle), and the usual great script and direction by Alison Andres. Listen to the DVD commentary afterwards for more on this amazing film and the artist behind its creation, Ms. Andres.

It was such a painful movie, I don't know how to describe it. All I can say is that it was so well done that I was almost forced to watch it. I couldn't bring myself to change the channel. It was well written, well acted and well directed. Kim Dickens and Gabriel Mann did an astounding job portraying the victims. I could feel Sherri's pain like it was my own and I felt pain for Owen, as well. The only thing I felt could have been done differently is that Owen was just as much a victim as Sherri was. He was just a child at the time of the rape. How can he have been held responsible for something he didn't want any part of and was forced into by his sociopathic brother? He suffered for it, too. I understand why Sherri had trouble dealing with him up to a point but it seems that everyone involved forgot that he had been a defenseless child, too. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who's ever been a victim or knows a victim.

Powerful, honest, to the point, sad, healing, cathartic, courageous, ultimately we have no victims here and end up with what humans truly are, especially women, survivors. The film is an act of love, for self and for every person on the planet who has ever experienced rape, sexual or otherwise, where one's intimacy and privacy are violated especially at the tender age of 14 when life is fresh and new, suddenly gone bad. I only wish this film came out 10 years ago.

The film profoundly affects as Anders says it like it is, walks the walk, talks the talk, and, as surviver of rape myself, the film angered, upset, and saddened me, yet I couldn't move myself out of my chair. I appreciate the blunt honesty and the integrity in which the film is detailed, I liked the congruity and coherent flashbacks from the past to the present..., delicate yet strongly done, it slams home the sociopathic brutality of an act of violence, not sex, portrayed by one of the rapists, Eric Stoltz, now a grown man who claims "we were only kids," his lack of remorse makes your skin crawl, his younger brother riddled with guilt, the film portrays one of the most inhuman acts one could perpetrate upon another in a strong yet sensitive way. Stoltz makes you want to kick him in the pants twice and have a hot fudge Sunday afterward. The film is exquisitely written and tuned with feeling. Any survivor of rape or otherwise is going to be affected by the way the event is poured out onto the screen in vivid color, the opposite of the color the world turns when one looks through the eyes of rape, you wonder how to get back into your own skin, the teenage girl now a grown woman struggling with her own sexual identity and the fact she's sterile from the rape..., the focus is not on the rape itself but the aftermath. Anders demonstrates the price paid for this act. Things Behind the Sun is a do tell, no-nonsense, right to the point film not for the faint of heart or giggly type. I recommend you see this film and take your kids, especially your teenage boys. This is living truth, not fiction. "God grant me the serenity," indeed, and "thanks for sharing".

Caught this movie on television. It shocked the daylights out of me. The performances and movie are incredible, but the shocking realism of the rape scenes are brutal and almost unwatchable. You will be tempted to shut this off when watching those poor girls being dragged into the rooms kicking and screaming for dear life while they're being gang raped, but dont. I didn't. A truly excellent movie. Don Cheadle is great in this as well. The scene most disturbing (noted by someone on this board) is watching that poor girl, after being raped, dragging herself through the streets, her skateboard dragging behind her. Wow. My jaw is still hanging from its hinges. THis is a good one.

I loved the music, I loved the acting, I loved the whole thing. It's very disturbing and not an easy film to watch, but I felt a sense of relief that a film finally tackled a subject that affects most women I know. Hats off to everyone who made this, and if you get a chance to see it- by all means do. It's really kind of extraordinary and simple at the same time.

This is an excellent film about a very difficult subject. All the performances were great as was the script. I thought the scenes of the rapes were very well handled. I give full credit to all those associated with this film. Too bad Don Cheadle lost to Steve Buscemi at the Independent Spirit Awards!

One of the favorites at the Sedona Film festival. Hoping this important film gets a broad distribution. Outstanding performances, well written, everything comes together in a powerful yet disturbingly emotional manner. Cheadle's kitchen scene was phenomenal. Must see!

This movie had potential but it seems it was mainly a vehicle for the director to try to exorcise her personal demons. The male lead spends the vast majority of the film mewling and whining ineffectually about what he failed to do as a child while failing (again) to provide any consolation to the victim. Perhaps he was a projection of the director's feeling of helplessness, but it makes for an annoying and unsympathetic character. The saving grace is a good soundtrack made up of obscure but wonderful 60's classics and some great new songs. If the musicians had been anything like the male lead, they would have moped about what they hadn't recorded or written, let down everyone who depended on them, and stood by doing and saying nothing while pretending to help.

This got and Emmy and Independent Spirit nomination for Don Cheadle, and an Indy nomination for Kim Dickens, who plays Sherrie, a rock singer in Cocoa Beach, Florida who was raped. Cheadle is her manager and former lover.

Sherrie doesn't know why her life is messed up, and why she can't move out of a life of promiscuity and drunkenness, because she has repressed the rape. Owen (Gabriel Mann) knows about the rape, and is doing a story on the girl behind the song she wrote. He is doing it because he was involved in Sherrie's rape. He has demons of his own to exorcise.

This was a powerful story of how a teen rape can cause permanent damage, not only to the person raped, but to everyone in her life from that day forward. The dysfunctional relationships that one experiences through life can be traced back to that rape.

The ending was a little to pat, but that's movies.

I ran into this movie by accident flipping channels late-night mainly because I live in Cocoa Beach and I instantly recognized the backdrop area of the film.

The fabulous acting drew me in instantly - my reaction to the film was a huge "WOW". The movie is a powerful drama, not only about rape and the psychological and physical damages it causes, but the fact that doing nothing about it can be morally construed in some situations to be just as much of a crime. While it's been said that this is a "simple" film as far as the plot line may be concerned, the characters and their emotions are very complex, with top-notch acting performances capturing every nuance.

This movie is very difficult to watch at certain points for anyone who has the slightest degree of empathy, for it portrays some very intense traumatic situations in an extremely realistic and non "Hollywood-ized" manner. The way the movie is shot and directed, it makes you feel like you are standing right there in person as each scene takes place, and that "nearness" will be very powerful with your emotions as you watch the film.

I highly recommend this movie if you like a strong drama that really pulls your heart and emotions into the characters and story. This is a very "real" film that will definitely affect you. It's definitely not "fluff"; it's not a comedy or a love story; but it is a very good movie that is well worth watching.

Who we are as individuals, and what we become, is nothing more than who we have always been and will always be; but within the psyche there are paths that lead to a myriad number of possible destinations, and often the choice of which to take is not ours. More often than not, circumstances-- some beyond our control, some not-- will determine which road we follow, and in our youth, even a single, significant emotional experience can dictate who we become and where life will take us. A shadow cast over one in adolescence is not easily dispelled, and all the beauty of life to that person may forever be elusive or clouded, hidden by a dark secret of the heart which prevents that person from ever being whole or capable of stepping out into the light of day. `Things Behind the Sun,' written by Allison Anders and Kurt Voss, and directed by Anders, is an examination of the causes and effects of journey's taken that are not of our own choosing, but which nevertheless define who we are. It explores the complexities of human nature and the inescapable dictates of fate that make each of us unique; it's a study of survival and need, and the struggle of attempting to extirpate oneself from the darkness while reaching out to the light-- a light perhaps never offered and ever denied.

Owen (Gabriel Mann), a Los Angeles based writer for a magazine that covers the rock scene, becomes involved with the story of a young singer in Florida, Sherry (Kim Dickens), who has just been arrested for being drunk and disorderly. Sherry's band has risen beyond garage status or playing local Legion halls, but 120 people in the audience at a gig in some small dive they still consider good. They've been getting some notice, though, with a song gaining popularity on college campuses in the area, and Owen has a personal interest, also: They are old childhood friends. So Owen heads to Florida for the story. But he knows even before he leaves that what he's after isn't really the story, but a catharsis-- for Sherry as well as himself-- to relieve the pall cast over their lives by a haunting incident that occurred when they were only fourteen-years-old, and which Owen hopes may alter Sherry's self-destructive lifestyle. It's a journey through which he will seek to change the course determined for them so long ago by forces beyond their control. He has no idea where it will lead them, but he knows he has to try; try to repair damage that just may be irreparable.

Extraordinarily crafted and delivered by Allison Anders, this film is intensely personal and affecting. The way it was written, filmed, acted-- everything-- has an honesty that rings true every single moment. And the way it is presented-- the pace, timing, the gradual way the information is revealed-- is impeccable. With this film Anders bares her soul, as well as that of her characters, to tell the story. She takes you into those dark corners we've all known in one way or another, those sometimes so brief-within-a-whole-lifetime, yet defining moments we'd probably just as soon forget, but can't, and exposes them for what they are: The appointed time in which Evil insinuated itself into our hearts and pierced it so deeply that the bleeding will never stop. That moment in which the soul is branded and scarred and penetrated so thoroughly that the rest of your life is spent treating the wound. It's a rare film that goes far beyond being mere entertainment, and may actually serve as a catharsis for someone who has experienced the darkness it so succinctly illuminates. And, in the same vein as `You Can Count On Me' or `Sling Blade,' it says so much for the importance of independent film and the truth that can be found outside the dominant studio system.

There are some remarkable performances in this film, beginning with Kim Dickens as Sherry, whose deep, unpretentious and detailed presentation of her character is as good as it gets. It's dismaying that a performance and a film like this can be lost so easily amid the Hollywood shuffle. And under closer scrutiny, the work Dickens does here gets even better. There's not a single moment when she is on screen that is false; not a blink of her eye nor a nod of her head. Everything she does is honest, and it makes Sherry not only believable, but very real and very human. What she does here is not only entirely effective, but pure in every sense. And like with Bjork in `Dancer In the Dark,' you have to question the absence of an Oscar nomination for it. Another dark corner over which we have no control.

Gabriel Mann (very reminiscent of a young James Spader here) gives an excellent performance, as well, and develops his character with subtle precision. Like Dickens, he comes across in such an unaffected manner that it really brings his character to life. And it's one of the things that makes this film work so well-- the fact that the characters are so very real and true-to-life. Moreover, it demonstrates what a talented actor can do in the hands of a gifted director.

Not to be outdone by his costars, Don Cheadle turns in the kind of performance we've come to expect from him, as Chuck, the manager of Sherry's band. He's a talented actor and a definite asset to this film. And it must be noted that Eric Stoltz, with limited screen time, turns in what is arguably the best performance of his career, as Owen's brother, Dan.

`Things Behind the Sun' is a triumph for Anders, who not only has exemplary insights into human nature, but knows how to transfer them to the screen. This is a film that gradually draws you in and involves you emotionally; and ultimately, it provides a genuinely memorable experience. 10/10.

I caught this movie in the early AM hours and could not stop watching, even though I needed to get some sleep. I had to watch the whole thing after investing the time and energy in the first hour.

I was amazed at the subtleties in the ending. The first real smile on the face of Sherry at the end was amazing. Up until that point, any smile had seemed forced or under the influence.

The one element that made me scratch my head was during Sherry's first meeting with the adult Owen that had come to interview her. It seemed to me that she should have had all of those feelings come flooding back as soon as she heard his whole name. She obviously would have blocked out anything that occurred after the rape, but young Owen was her best friend/first crush. I felt that she easily would have recalled that, but not anything that included him in the rape.

I read in another comment that the subject matter of this film is something that women are frequently familiar with. Just as familiar is the feeling that the character of Chuck experienced. He was forced to try to steady the ship until Sherry finally reconciled what had happened in whatever manner she could. He had no outlet and no way to help her until she was ready.

I worked as a volunteer at the L.A. Film Festival the year that "Things Behind the Sun" was its centerpiece, its main film of the festival. I wish I had known more about it at the time, because I would have loved to have seen it in person and talked to Allison Anders, its director.

What a moving and gripping film. What happens in childhood, both good and bad, tends to stick with us throughout the rest of our lives. How we deal with trauma in our early years can scar and stunt us forever. That's what this film is about. It was horrifying to learn that the director, Allison, Anders, experienced rape at a young age as the girl in the film did, in Florida, in the exact same house that is used in the film. Kim Dickens, Gabriel Mann, Don Cheadle, Eric Stoltz, Elizabeth Pena and Rosanna Arquette all give stellar performances in this little-scene film. The music by Sonic Youth is a haunting addition to the movie.

This was an independently made film, which should have won tons of awards and gotten more publicity. I have caught it on cable and can now purchase it on DVD. I highly recommend this film, but it's not for the squeamish or easily offended. Years later, I still remember how great a movie it is.

The good parts of this movie, apparently inspired by a true story, makes me wish it was better as a whole. Kim Dickens is great as a troubled singer still haunted by a gang rape as a teenager. Don Cheadle as her manager and ex-lover has stereotypical characteristics, but gives a very good performance (his final words and expression in the scene with the writer was classic). Eric Stolz is excellent as well. And, the scenes at the music magazine was interesting, if incomplete. The whole movie, however, also has an incomplete feeling to it. The passion and message is there, and the brutal honesty about rape and its effects on all involved valuable. Nonetheless, the movie drags too often and often feels incoherent. Also, the writer is a rather pathetic character, and I got tired of him mighty fast. A better script would have made this movie much better ... as is, it is a worthy misfire.

This film may not be the best in terms of dialog or form, but it really connected in a way too few movies do. In fact, it's almost too true for it's own good. It's a great film, and I'm glad I saw it, but I'm not sure I ever want to put myself through that again. The emotions brought out in the wonderful performances are so real and affecting, that it's a heart-wrenching and emotionally draining experience to watch this film.