Chris Knipp
10-24-2025, 08:01 PM
http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/%20snst.jpg
SIERRA FALCONER: SUNFISH (& OTHER STORIES ON GREEN LAKE) (2025)
Four separate stories set around the same Michigan lake at summertime
The title is bigger than this movie, which is detailed, but modest. It's a compendium of tiny tales set on a lake near Chicago so little developed you may feel at times you could almost fast-forward and not miss much. A full watch, however, may be rewarded - for the patient - if you enjoy an anthology film that jumps quickly from one narrative to the next without much resolution, not even the snappy but shallow O. Henry kind.
Here is how they unreel. I. "Sunfish" is about a 14-year-old girl. Lu - though the actress who plays her, Maren Heary, is acknowledged to look older, and fully robust enough for the task she takes on. Her mother who has impulsively married goes on a honeymoon and leaves Lu with at her duck-watching grandparents by the lake and learns the challenging physical work of sailing a little sunfish boat, then rescues a lost baby duck her grandparents spotted earlier.
II.In the anguished but slight "Summer Camp," Jun (Jim Kaplan) is left off by his mom at the fancy music summer camp referred to in segment I. He is a shy young violinist who, despite his self-doubts and there being other seemingly more brilliant and certainly handsomer and more confident young male violinists, triumphs at auditions, and is made concertmaster at the camp. So maybe his helicopter mom was right to tell him he will be head violinist in the Chicago Symphony by the age of 18.
In segment III, "Two Hearted," Dominic Bogard plays Finn, an alcoholic dreamer who claims to be dying, and says to his drinking buddies that he has seen a huge fish in the lake. Annie (Karsen Liotta), a single mother working as waitress at the dive where Finn drinks (this segment is more developed), overhears Finn's dream and volunteers to help him catch the fish and they steal a harpoon do so. She says she's meant to go to college but this lake is "a black hole." Well, it proves just that for Finn.
IV. "Resident Bird" cutely refers to a young woman named Blue Jay (Teley Kellogg), known as "Bird." She and her sister Robin (Emily Hall) - also a "bird" - are working at a tourist rental at summer's end with Robin soon to leave for culinary school in Chicago. You start to notice a jaunty musical score, perhaps because despite the detailed interaction of the two sisters, less of moment, even by the standardof these low-keyed stories, is happening here. We peaked at the moment when the lake swallowed up Finn. Perhaps the acting is more subtle here; dialogue also harder to follow. A young male arrived with other people known as "Hen-Hen" (Ethan Stoddard) is presented as a teen dreamboat temptation for the younger sister: bouffant black hair, wife beater, double necklace, talent at cards.
By the last segment, if not before, you know where this film debuted. "Bird" is in full Sundance mode with its cozy American intimacy and its jaunty soundtrack. Again, nothing much happens. The older sister leaves as planned to go to culinary school. Her younger sister lets her take the chunky pink knit sweater after all. If that floats your boat, rock with it. Many do find this whole film charming and delicate, and are unperturbed by its failure to provide distinct payoffs, perhaps find the thin threads that connect the four tales here add richness, an air of reality; or the game of make believe, they think, is played so well it might as well all be real. For others, myself included, all the charm, all the detail, merely underlines that there is not much inside. The anthology film is a difficult medium and, after all, a special taste. But the critical response has been good, so if this makes you curious, so see for yourself.
Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake) 87 mins., premiered Jan. 26, 2025 at Sundance, showing also at Long Beach Island, Nantucket, and Maine festivals. Released by Tribeca Films (limited) Sept. 25, 2025. On Demand Nov. 4. Metacritic (https://www.metacritic.com/movie/sunfish-other-stories-on-green-lake/) rating 79%
SIERRA FALCONER: SUNFISH (& OTHER STORIES ON GREEN LAKE) (2025)
Four separate stories set around the same Michigan lake at summertime
The title is bigger than this movie, which is detailed, but modest. It's a compendium of tiny tales set on a lake near Chicago so little developed you may feel at times you could almost fast-forward and not miss much. A full watch, however, may be rewarded - for the patient - if you enjoy an anthology film that jumps quickly from one narrative to the next without much resolution, not even the snappy but shallow O. Henry kind.
Here is how they unreel. I. "Sunfish" is about a 14-year-old girl. Lu - though the actress who plays her, Maren Heary, is acknowledged to look older, and fully robust enough for the task she takes on. Her mother who has impulsively married goes on a honeymoon and leaves Lu with at her duck-watching grandparents by the lake and learns the challenging physical work of sailing a little sunfish boat, then rescues a lost baby duck her grandparents spotted earlier.
II.In the anguished but slight "Summer Camp," Jun (Jim Kaplan) is left off by his mom at the fancy music summer camp referred to in segment I. He is a shy young violinist who, despite his self-doubts and there being other seemingly more brilliant and certainly handsomer and more confident young male violinists, triumphs at auditions, and is made concertmaster at the camp. So maybe his helicopter mom was right to tell him he will be head violinist in the Chicago Symphony by the age of 18.
In segment III, "Two Hearted," Dominic Bogard plays Finn, an alcoholic dreamer who claims to be dying, and says to his drinking buddies that he has seen a huge fish in the lake. Annie (Karsen Liotta), a single mother working as waitress at the dive where Finn drinks (this segment is more developed), overhears Finn's dream and volunteers to help him catch the fish and they steal a harpoon do so. She says she's meant to go to college but this lake is "a black hole." Well, it proves just that for Finn.
IV. "Resident Bird" cutely refers to a young woman named Blue Jay (Teley Kellogg), known as "Bird." She and her sister Robin (Emily Hall) - also a "bird" - are working at a tourist rental at summer's end with Robin soon to leave for culinary school in Chicago. You start to notice a jaunty musical score, perhaps because despite the detailed interaction of the two sisters, less of moment, even by the standardof these low-keyed stories, is happening here. We peaked at the moment when the lake swallowed up Finn. Perhaps the acting is more subtle here; dialogue also harder to follow. A young male arrived with other people known as "Hen-Hen" (Ethan Stoddard) is presented as a teen dreamboat temptation for the younger sister: bouffant black hair, wife beater, double necklace, talent at cards.
By the last segment, if not before, you know where this film debuted. "Bird" is in full Sundance mode with its cozy American intimacy and its jaunty soundtrack. Again, nothing much happens. The older sister leaves as planned to go to culinary school. Her younger sister lets her take the chunky pink knit sweater after all. If that floats your boat, rock with it. Many do find this whole film charming and delicate, and are unperturbed by its failure to provide distinct payoffs, perhaps find the thin threads that connect the four tales here add richness, an air of reality; or the game of make believe, they think, is played so well it might as well all be real. For others, myself included, all the charm, all the detail, merely underlines that there is not much inside. The anthology film is a difficult medium and, after all, a special taste. But the critical response has been good, so if this makes you curious, so see for yourself.
Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake) 87 mins., premiered Jan. 26, 2025 at Sundance, showing also at Long Beach Island, Nantucket, and Maine festivals. Released by Tribeca Films (limited) Sept. 25, 2025. On Demand Nov. 4. Metacritic (https://www.metacritic.com/movie/sunfish-other-stories-on-green-lake/) rating 79%