All the Light in the Sky

With Joe Swanberg's latest picture, All the Light in the Sky, he has turned over a new leaf, redirecting his attention from post-college listlessness to what seems to be post-peak listlessness, in the regard that the lead character hasn't been the center of attention for quite sometime now. She is far past her peak, living day-by-day in a redundant funk that has consumed her for many years now. It's a depressing reality, but Swanberg provides the subject matter with simple direction and an unusual warmness, making for a favorable seventy-nine minutes.

Jane Adams, in a terrific performance, plays Marie, a struggling, middle-aged actress residing in a home perched over a lovely beach in Malibu. Marie is an insomniac, usually getting minimal sleep while she listens to her audiobook, rising in the morning to put on a wetsuit in order to go surfing, and hearing from her publicist about ambitious roles she didn't get due to her age. In walks her young, perky niece Faye of about twenty-five years old, an ambitious actress who appears to be everything Marie was at one point. When Marie's with Faye, she feels younger and clearly sees herself in the young, kindred spirit.

Consider a scene when Marie and Faye go surfing and are putting on their wetsuits. "I wish I always had this extra layer of protection," says Marie, clearly alluding to the need for an extra layer to fend off criticism and life's negative instances. Marie explains how her level of fragility has been increased since getting older in a way that Faye seems to understand but reject, understandably so. Faye is young and really shouldn't be too concerned with what will come later in life. Right now, she has a boyfriend she's sure will be her fiancée, high hopes with acting, and a supportive aunt as a role model - why worry? Another great scene is when the girls are on Marie's balcony, taking off their wetsuits after surfing. They both stand completely naked, in true Swanberg fashion of nonchalantly and maturely dismissing the nudity on screen. The nudity is special because it is so trivial, banal, and unnecessary. Marie tells Faye what great breasts she has been blessed with, perky and alive, and mentions she once had great breasts but they slumped into nothing but unremarkable flatness in recent years. This scene, in short, may pose commentary on Hollywood's treatment of female nudity. If your breasts aren't perky and alive, what value do you have in a sex scene? All the Light in the Sky is littered with little scenes like these, and is made all the more special because of, what film critic Ignatiy Vishnevetsky calls, Swanberg's "potluck" style of filmmaking. The inclusion of filmmakers such as Ti West and familiar faces such as Adams and indie actor Kent Osborne (who also appeared in Swanberg's Uncle Kent) in a documentary-style light, combined with Swanberg's frequent use of improvised dialog, each person is bringing their own particular taste in style to the table and could be potentially voicing their own opinions in their discussions.

All the Light in the Sky's biggest issue is trying to make a clear statement, however. Some scenes feel out of place and leave the film a bit messy and skewed in its theme, as if the film is going for more of a metaphorical statement (the frequent use of Marie's audiobook, long shots of silence, etc) and not the one I feel it is trying to emphasize on (the effects of age and the fall from ones peak). Moreover, this is one of Swanberg's finest pictures, showing him tackling a new subject matter with the same old, delightful mumblecore style. Thankfully this film of Swanberg's is one that is accessible and not burdened by seldom distribution.

NOTE: All the Light in the Sky is available to rent for a low price on Amazon Instant Video after a very limited theatrical run at the tailend of 2013.

Starring: Jane Adams, Sophia Takal, Kent Osborne, Larry Fessenden, and Ti West. Directed by: Joe Swanberg.

Had I known that Jane Adams had done a film with the guy who wrote and directed Drinking Buddies and Win it All, I would've been on this way sooner. Jane Adams as like a little hidden gem of an actress for me. Even though I'd love for her to break out with bigger and better roles. She just seems to exude a certain realness that's often hard to transfer onto the screen. Even seeing her nude in this was the cutest non-sexual scene I've come across in a while. It's like watching real life.

But the end scene where her character Marie is cozying up with her neighbor Rusty on the couch was so damn sweet and authentic that it kinda blew me away. Their expressions, their gestures and how they talked to each other was as real as it gets. I felt like a voyeur watching these people and the intimacy they enjoyed in each other as friends.

Unfortunately, none of the other actors appealed to me in any way, but I could easily watch more of Marie and Rusty.

NetFlix has decided well to give Swanberg a series of short stories. Although much better done, this movie reminds me of the usual European Art movie.

There is the story of the main character. Which goes nowhere. It's a sketch. 30 minutes would have been way too much for it. Yet it is blown to some 45 minutes.

Than there is the story of the younger character. Which is not a younger main character. It is a different story entirely with different issues.

Than there is some mandatory preaching about ecology. Or high tech as perceived by someone with an education in Humanities. And those are from another movie altogether.

And if the larger story goes nowhere, it would have been unfair to have any of the shorter stories go anywhere either, somehow like the second daughter can't get married till the first born daughter is given to some male.

The acting is good. The scenes are so natural and well felt. The light is not unpleasant like in most Mumblecore movies.

And why the often change in backdrop? Yes, it can be there to show how a woman goes out of her zone of comfort to have sex at the partner's home. But all these stories could have happened in the same place: the upstairs home and the downstairs beach linked not by a staircase, but by sand.

You can also see this on Kanopy if you have access to this streaming service. It's where I found it.

Jane Adams stars in this boring look at an actress who lives in a dumpy condo with a great ocean view. That's about it. She has a niece come to visit and she talks to a couple guys.

She sits around the condo, goes out on a paddle board, drives around, and she talks and talks and talks, mostly about herself. There's also a truly boring guy who lectures on the pieces and parts of solar collectors and atmospheric testing equipment.

She and her group always seem to be drunk or high. Incredibly boring film with nice shots of the ocean.