Filmmaker Joe Swanberg might be known as one of the pioneers of the 2000s low-budget indie film movement known as “mumblecore,” but he’s established a signature, deeply humanist style all his own in the two decades since his directorial debut, “Kissing on the Mouth,” premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival.
But Swanberg remains fascinated by people, relationships, sex and love, and his latest film, “The Sun Never Sets,” explores the same themes that inspired him to pick up a digital camera back in 2004. Both “The Sun Never Sets” and “Kissing on the Mouth” feature triads of two men and one woman, ex-boyfriends and themes of jealousy, but in vastly different stages of life. The more things change, the more they stay the same, as the saying goes, and that proves to be true in Swanberg’s filmic output.
A rom-dramedy set in Anchorage, Alaska, two of the love triangle participants are Wendy (Dakota Fanning) and Jack (Jake Johnson, Swanberg’s current muse; this is their fourth feature together). Jack is an older divorced dad; Wendy is in her early 30s, seemingly content to play stepmom to Jack’s two kids, though the relationship means sacrificing some of her dreams, like marriage and kids of her own…