About Sunny

This is a beautiful film. Thoughtful, poignant, honest, raw and real. We need more films like this. I will admit, I only watched it because I am a fan of Lauren Ambrose because of her work in "Six Feet Under" but once I started it, the film itself completely took me by surprise. Ambrose is once again a wonderful actor with her subtle yet real performance. It is amazing she doesn't work more but then it's nice she isn't over-exposed. But that said, the script, direction, music and camera work reeled me into this world and I found myself truly mesmerized. As someone who does not enjoy the sequels and remakes saturating the film world today, watching something like this reminded me of why I love film. Bravo, to all involved. This is a work of art (which is probably why no one has heard of it.) Ah... someday, I hope, that will change. With films like this, perhaps it will be sooner than later.

A most depressing saga which examines the minutiae in the bleak life of a sad and pathetic woman who abuses not only herself but especially her young child. It's difficult to fathom whether or not the film might be attempting to romanticize in some sort of bizarre manner such a degrading existence as it offers no resolution but rather leaves the viewer wondering, as the film concludes, whether or not these two lives will continue to spiral down their seeming path toward self-destruction. And while the cast puts in creditable performances, they fail to overshadow the grim situation portrayed nor are able to engender any real compassion for the characters by holding out any possibility for some sort of positive resolution.

It seems some people are rating the movie based on what they think of the mother. And in doing so completely miss the point of the film.

Clearly it is a film that doesn't use the usual music, or other goto's to make the mother seen 'romanticized' etc, purposely drawing light to the cold stark problems with the situations the kid is put through, and yet people upon seeing that the child is put into bad situation time and time again, and as a result they rate the movie poorly.

Poverty is about the lack of choice, poverty is about not having had role models in their lives to show them what good choices look like, poverty is about lack of education to help figure out better decisions, it is about never had opportunities to again gain a practical perspective, and poverty is often about mental health issues, about cooping mechanisms that seem to solve an immediate issue, but cause more problems long term, and poverty is about being looked upon with distaste, and judgement from people who care more about punishment than helping people. The people rating this film poorly because they dislike the mother or the situation for the child are completely missing the entire point of the film which is to draw awareness to the way that these situations often unravel in real life, this film does a great job portraying the complications, and the frustrations around these issues. And it clearly once again showed that people would rather punish the parent and the child along with them, then help them out of the situation, feeling somehow that 'they would get one over on them' if they didnt' suffer because of the parents choices. The parent was making horrible decisions, but she clearly loved her child, and by the attitude of anger and distaste for the mother, the child will often get sent from a mother who clearly is above all else, deeply protective and loving of her child, and then these same people criticizing the film will not bat an eyelash as CPS comes in and the child ends up in an abusive household for the child, recreating now an even worse perpetual cycle of poverty and now abuse. The end determination of what should happen in these situations, is instead of the state spending money to give to a foster family, they should determine that if there is no sign of physical abuse, and it is clear the mother for instance is deeply protective and wants the best for their kid, the solution at worst is find a way to help the mother get on her feet again, as long as they are not drug addicts, that is the best possible outcome. Enough with the judgements on the parent(s) that end up screwing a kid for life. Stop judging, that doesnt' help solve the issue, and start figuring out how to make that kids life better, and if the mother gets to make bad decisions and still end up being able to provide shelter and food for her kid, honestly, the world is better off for it. Tired of the hate, and anger, that ends up just making the kids in these situations live horrendous lives, and the people forcing that to happen pretend it is the parents fault entirely, when they are supporting a state that is pushing the foster home above a loving but flawed parent.

About Sunny (2011)

A slice of life realistic story about a young mother and her daughter living on the edge of subsistence in Nevada. Lauren Ambrose (who was Claire in "Six Feet Under") is terrific, not overplaying a slightly hardened but still sympathetic character. The story is mostly about how things go a little bit wrong, not through stupidity (as in some movies like this where the leading female makes huge mistakes) but through some smaller misjudgments.

The daughter is terrific, too, and so we see a tension and tolerance in her relationship to her mom, who clearly loves her but is always a bit short on patience. The one real twist, which is a bit forced into the plot, is a relative of a co-worker who has some designs on the girl. This, too, is played with some subtlety, though the idea is just unlikely and sudden enough to force you to go along with it. It's not inevitable.

Even so this other plot is a small part of what really happens, with the growing feelings you have for the main two people. It's clearly a low budget indie film, and is produced by Ambrose, so you can see some smart attempts at moving her career forward. And she pulls it off with a heart wrenching, cinema-verite story that is maybe just a hair to close to the truth for many people to make it comfortable. How easy it is to watch more terrible tragedies (from "Goodfellas" to "Pulp Fiction") and how hard to see what might be true (here and in "Julia" which makes for a weird, imperfect parallel).

Surprisingly solid.

Watching this slow-moving, quietly painful film, I had two things at the back of my mine. One was my own mother's struggles as an educated but not very practical single mother decades ago and the other was a recent news item about a judge who took a Guatemalan immigrant's child away from her on the grounds that she had "abandoned" the child by... being arrested as an illegal immigrant. In other words, watching this woman struggle to take care of her daughter while making a series of bad decisions all along the way was also watching the real story of innumerable women, some like her, some not so much, who find it almost impossible to do the one thing they most want to do: take care of their children. It is painful to watch, not least because some of the women in this situation will make all manner of damaging decisions out of desperation and the film just shows some of the issues that can prompt that desperation: not getting child support, trying to work two jobs, unexpected expenses which are catastrophic on a tight income, etc. It is easy to get impatient with this character in a number of cases, but it is also clear that, in her own sloppy and ill-prepared way, she is trying; trying and often being thwarted. There is one central developing dilemma which gives the story something of a spine, but really overall we're left with the sense that, rather than being this woman's main story, it is one episode out of many in what will always be a life of uncertainty and limited choices. The film is shot in a gloomy, unadorned way with no background music or other overt cinematographic touches and so it is overall an unsparing experience. Echoing after it is the awareness that some women will triumph in similar situations, others will end up overwhelmed and making all manner of bad decisions - if a choice made when boxed into a corner can be called a decision.