Chicago filmmaker Joe Swanberg often centers women in his ensemble improv films, and his new romantic drama “The Sun Never Sets” observes yet another wayfinding woman charting her changing relationships.
Set and shot in Anchorage, “The Sun Never Sets” closes out the Chicago Critics Film Festival on May 7 at Music Box Theatre. Its female focus recalls Swanberg’s early “Hannah Takes the Stairs” (2007) and “Nights and Weekends” (2008). Greta Gerwig starred in both. Swanberg played her lover in the latter film. She got co-writer credits for both ultra low-budget mumblecore hits and would go on to write and direct the critically acclaimed “Lady Bird,” “Little Women” and “Barbie.”
Whether in their early 20s or early 40s, the women in Swanberg’s informal plots work through their changing roles as friends and lovers of the men around them. “Certainly one commonality that I could claim across my work is this gray zone, boundary line of emotional affairs or relationships that feel like technically legal, but maybe sort of illegal if the characters are being honest with themselves,” Swanberg told the Sun-Times. Increasingly, these characters are wives and mothers in the 44-year-old auteur’s narratives.
Olivia Wilde, director and actor in the fest’s opening film “The Invite.,” starred in Swanberg’s “Drinking Buddies” (2013) largely shot at Revolution Brewing in Avondale.
Anna Kendrick is in “Drinking Buddies” too and turns up in “Happy Christmas” (2014). Shooting in his own home, Swanberg plays a film director with a baby played by his real son. Kendrick plays a younger sister crash-landing in the basement after a breakup.
In “The Sun Never Sets,” Dakota Fanning is his latest marquee name. She plays Wendy, a 31-year-old navigating a turning point. Her best friend is expecting and reminds Wendy they once promised they would go through pregnancy together. Wendy won’t even commit to hosting the baby shower. She bails on a boring date to hook up with a hot if toxic ex, a float plane pilot with bad credit who brings turbulence. No way is he a fathering prospect.
Swanberg agrees that the key male character in Wendy’s orbit is his most nuanced and emotionally detailed male character yet. Wealth investor Jack, played by Evanston native and longtime Swanberg collaborator Jake Johnson, urges Wendy to pause their two-year-old relationship so she can figure out her “next chapter.” His too.
Swanberg acknowledges he is like Jack, a divorced dad with two kids. In “The Sun Never Sets” locally cast characters are named after Swanberg’s own son and daughter. Swanberg appears momentarily as a former lover of Wendy. His character is now married and a new dad.
“The Sun Never Sets” premiered in March at South By Southwest (SXSW). It was the 10th film Swanberg brought to this Austin, Texas festival. His very first feature, “Kissing on the Mouth,” premiered there in 2005. The independent film community he discovered there was life-changing, but SXSW was just one among many film festivals to mold his career.
“Kissing on the Mouth” got its local premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival, the first one 16-year-old Swanberg ever attended. “On my birthday, I would ask my parents to get me a pass to the Chicago International Film Festival,” Swanberg recalled. “I would just take the train in from the suburbs. I spent high school just rapidly consuming as many movies as I possibly could see, specifically independent and foreign films.”
He went to the Music Box Theatre on weekends when not working at Hollywood Video. At Naperville Central High School, he took a Super-8 film class. One summer he took a 16mm production course at Columbia College Chicago.
Next stop was Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. “I spent all four years working for the Big Muddy Film Festival,” said Swanberg. “So that exposed me to a ton of cool filmmakers, and I got to understand the inner workings of film festivals. When I got out of film school and moved to Chicago, my first job was with the Chicago International Film Festival.”
Swanberg, who lives in Lincoln Square, prizes the annual Chicago Critics Film Festival, “whether I’ve had a film in it or not.”
“Almost every year, I have multiple friends with movies in the festival,” he said. “It’s so cool to have friends come from out of town and be like, ‘Oh, my god, this movie theater is gorgeous!”
Swanberg will go on the Music Box stage for an audience Q/A at Thursday’s show, along with producer Ashleigh Snead, actor Cory Michael Smith and cinematographer Eon Mora.