Entertainment
Dakota Fanning and Jake Johnson Have Undeniable Chemistry in Alaska So Why Does ‘The Sun Never Sets’ Feel Like It Can’t Quite Make Up Its Mind…
Joe Swanberg’s latest romantic dramedy debuts at SXSW with two charming leads, a beautiful Alaskan backdrop, and a story about an ex you probably shouldn’t call — but the film itself seems just as conflicted as its protagonist.
There is a particular kind of romantic film that lives and dies entirely on the question of whether you believe the two people at its centre could actually fall for each other. Not whether the plot makes sense, not whether the dialogue sparkles on every page, not even whether the ending satisfies — just that one fundamental thing: do these two people feel real together?
By that measure, The Sun Never Sets has something genuinely valuable going for it. Dakota Fanning and Jake Johnson are warm, lived-in, and quietly compelling together in a way that makes you wish the film around them were a little more sure of itself. Because the chemistry is real. The film, unfortunately, is still working out what it wants to be.
Debuting at SXSW — the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, which remains one of the best places in the world to catch a romantic dramedy before it finds its audience — The Sun Never Sets is the latest feature from director Joe Swanberg, the Chicago-based filmmaker who built his reputation on exactly this kind of intimate, naturalistic, relationship-first storytelling. His Drinking Buddies remains a small masterpiece of the genre — a film about attraction and ambivalence and the particular torture of wanting something you are not quite sure you should have. Fans of that film will find a lot that is familiar here. Whether familiar is enough this time is a more complicated question.
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The Setup: A Break, an Ex, and Alaska
The film centres on a young woman — played by Fanning — who is on a break from a long-term relationship and finds herself in Alaska, that vast and quietly cinematic state that has become shorthand in American film for a certain kind of emotional wilderness. The frozen distances. The light that refuses to disappear in summer. The feeling of being very far from the life you normally inhabit and the decisions you would normally make.
It is in Alaska that she reconnects with her ex, played by Johnson. And from that premise — simple, recognisable, emotionally loaded — Swanberg builds a film that is at its best when it simply lets its two leads exist together in the same space and trusts the audience to feel the pull between them.
The “on a break” framing is doing real narrative work here. It is not quite the same as being single, which means every conversation, every shared meal, every moment of accidental closeness carries a weight that neither character can fully ignore. She is not free, exactly. But she is not entirely committed either. And her ex — warm, funny, carrying his own complicated feelings with the kind of studied casualness that Jake Johnson has essentially trademarked at this point — is right there, being exactly the person she remembered, which is both the problem and the point.
Why Fanning and Johnson Work
Dakota Fanning has been in the public eye since she was a child — one of those rare performers who transitioned from precocious child star to credible adult actress without losing the essential quality that made audiences respond to her in the first place. That quality is a kind of interior richness — the sense that her characters are always thinking something they are not quite saying, always feeling something slightly more complicated than the surface suggests. In The Sun Never Sets, that quality is exactly what the role needs. Her character is a woman caught between two versions of her life, and Fanning plays that in-between state with real nuance and without the melodrama that a lesser performance might have reached for.
Jake Johnson has built an entire career on playing exactly this kind of man — the ex who is too charming for his own good, emotionally intelligent enough to be dangerous, self-aware enough to know he is probably not helping the situation and yet unable to quite remove himself from it. It is a type he has played before, most notably in New Girl as Nick Miller, and he plays it with the ease of someone who has spent a long time understanding what makes these men both frustrating and irresistible. The difference here is that Johnson brings something slightly sadder to the role — a sense of a man who has genuinely not moved on, and knows it, and is not entirely sure what to do with that knowledge.
Together, they are the reason to watch The Sun Never Sets. Full stop.
The Film’s Central Problem: Commitment
Here is where the honest part of this review has to arrive. Joe Swanberg is one of American independent cinema’s most authentic voices when it comes to the messy, unresolved, fundamentally human experience of romantic ambivalence. But ambivalence in a film’s characters is very different from ambivalence in a film’s storytelling — and The Sun Never Sets sometimes struggles to distinguish between the two.
The film is deliberately, almost programmatically, wishy-washy — a word that sounds like a criticism but is actually, in the right hands, a description of something Swanberg does intentionally and well. Life is wishy-washy. Relationships are wishy-washy. The Drinking Buddies formula works precisely because it refuses to resolve its tensions cleanly and trusts the audience to sit with discomfort.
The problem here is that The Sun Never Sets occasionally mistakes vagueness for depth and drift for atmosphere. There are stretches of the film where the lack of narrative momentum stops feeling like a deliberate artistic choice and starts feeling like the film is waiting for something to happen that never quite does. The Alaskan setting — which should be doing enormous atmospheric work, all that impossible light and quiet immensity — sometimes feels like a backdrop rather than a character, which is a missed opportunity given how much location has historically done for films in this genre.
The SXSW Context
Premiering at SXSW places The Sun Never Sets in exactly the right company. This is a festival that has historically embraced precisely the kind of small, character-driven, adult romantic drama that has been steadily crowded out of mainstream cinema by franchise entertainment. The audience here will be predisposed to give it the patience it asks for, and in that context, the film’s quieter qualities will likely land better than they might in a wider release environment.
For Swanberg, this represents a return to the territory where he is most comfortable and most himself. For Fanning, it is another demonstration that she is one of her generation’s most interesting screen presences when given material that trusts her. For Johnson, it is confirmation — as if any were needed — that he is one of the most naturally watchable actors currently working in American independent film.
Whether The Sun Never Sets ultimately lands as a minor gem or a near-miss will probably depend on how much patience any individual viewer brings to a film that is generous with mood and sparing with resolution. One thing is certain: when Fanning and Johnson are on screen together, the sun, metaphorically speaking, is very much still up.
Entertainment
How ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Returned to Cinemas and Reclaimed Box Office Glory
Renewed ticket sales send Marvel’s 2019 finale past ‘Avatar’ to lead the all-time global chart again.
Seven years after its original release, Avengers: Endgame has unfinished business at the box office.
The Marvel Studios blockbuster has overtaken James Cameron’s Avatar to become the highest-grossing film worldwide once again. According to The Walt Disney Company’s October 4 announcement, Endgame now holds an estimated $2.9255 billion, narrowly ahead of Avatar’s $2.9237 billion. That puts just $1.8 million between two of cinema’s biggest hits.
The lead is small. The comeback, however, is substantial: a film released in 2019 has drawn enough fresh ticket sales to rewrite the all-time chart.
The ‘Encore’ release that tipped the balance
The latest theatrical run, titled Avengers Endgame: Encore, has earned $126 million worldwide, according to TheWrap. That includes $36.2 million in North America and $89.8 million from international markets—the extra business that pushed the film back into first place.
Audiences also had a reason to return beyond revisiting a familiar blockbuster. TheWrap reports that the reissue features a modified ending and three new scenes during and after the credits, connected to Avengers: Doomsday. The release therefore serves two purposes: bringing an established favourite back to cinemas and giving viewers a bridge to the next Avengers story.
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A rivalry with a history of reversals
This is another change of leadership in a box office contest that has lasted for years.
Endgame first displaced Avatar in 2019. Cameron’s science-fiction epic regained the crown following its Chinese re-release in 2021. Now, another theatrical return has swung the result in Marvel’s favour. Re-releases have become a decisive part of the competition, extending both films’ earning lives well beyond their original runs.
The distinction matters: this is the record for worldwide theatrical revenue without adjustment for inflation, including re-release earnings. It measures money collected rather than the number of tickets sold.
Why ‘Endgame’ matters to ‘Doomsday’
The timing gives Marvel’s comeback an added significance. Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to reach cinemas on December 18, 2026, and Disney has positioned Endgame as an important foundation for that next chapter.
Explaining the connection, Anthony Russo said: “You really need to pick the story up from where you left it in Endgame.”
That makes this return more than a victory lap. A film remembered for closing a major chapter of Marvel’s story is now helping introduce the next one—and, along the way, has taken back Hollywood’s most closely watched box office title.
Entertainment
Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ Faces a Tough Opening: Could ‘Verity’ Take the Lead?
Cruise’s star power meets a fresh box office challenge as the Colleen Hoover adaptation emerges as a formidable rival.
Tom Cruise has spent years persuading audiences to watch him attempt the impossible. With Digger, the challenge is different: convincing moviegoers to embrace an eccentric, darkly comic character who bears little resemblance to his familiar action heroes.
Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, the film arrives in US cinemas on October 2, 2026, carrying considerable expectations. Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, an oil tycoon confronting a catastrophe connected to his company’s actions. It is a conspicuous departure for an actor whose recent screen identity has been shaped by spectacular stunts and blockbuster franchises.
Yet the conversation before release has increasingly turned from Cruise’s transformation to a more uncomfortable question: how many people will buy a ticket?
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A costly film facing a modest opening
According to Koimoi’s September 30 report, Digger was tracking for a North American opening below $15 million, against a reported production cost of approximately $125 million. These are reported estimates, rather than confirmed earnings or a final accounting of the film’s costs.
That gap explains the concern surrounding Warner Bros.. An expensive production needs sustained attendance, and a subdued debut would place greater pressure on subsequent weekends and overseas markets.
An opening forecast cannot establish a film’s eventual profit or loss. It can, however, reveal how much work remains for the campaign.
Reviews have complicated the pitch
The critical response has been sharply divided. People reported reactions ranging from admiration for the film’s audacity and Cruise’s commitment to criticism of its scale, coherence and tone.
For potential ticket buyers, that creates an uncertain proposition. Cruise’s presence attracts attention, but attention does not automatically translate into enthusiasm for an unfamiliar kind of film.
The promotional campaign has leaned into that disagreement. The Guardian described advertising that places harsh reactions alongside praise, using the controversy itself to generate interest. Whether that approach encourages curiosity or deepens hesitation remains an open question.
Why ‘Verity’ makes the weekend more intriguing
The Hollywood Reporter expects Digger to open substantially behind Verity, the Amazon MGM Studios adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel. hollywoodreporter.com
Starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett, Verity is also scheduled to open on October 2. Its psychological-thriller premise centres on a writer who discovers a disturbing manuscript while completing another author’s book series.
From a marketing perspective, an established novel and a recognisable thriller setup could offer a more immediate hook. Digger, by comparison, asks audiences to take a greater leap into unfamiliar territory.
The audience verdict is still ahead
Cruise has clearly committed to that leap. At the London premiere, Reuters reported that his transformation involved prosthetics and a padded bodysuit, alongside a demanding performance.
The commercial outcome remains unresolved. Strong audience recommendations could give Digger momentum beyond its initial forecasts. A weak response would make its financial challenge harder.
For now, the film’s biggest suspense lies beyond the screen: whether curiosity about Cruise’s unusual gamble becomes an opening-weekend ticket purchase.
Entertainment
‘Verity’ Could Outopen ‘Digger’: Why Tom Cruise Faces a Tough Contest
The competing releases raise a compelling question: which film will persuade more audiences to buy a ticket?
Tom Cruise has spent years persuading audiences to watch him attempt the impossible. With Digger, the challenge is different: convincing moviegoers to embrace an eccentric, darkly comic character who bears little resemblance to his familiar action heroes.
Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, the film arrives in US cinemas on October 2, 2026, carrying considerable expectations. Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, an oil tycoon confronting a catastrophe connected to his company’s actions. It is a conspicuous departure for an actor whose recent screen identity has been shaped by spectacular stunts and blockbuster franchises.
Yet the conversation before release has increasingly turned from Cruise’s transformation to a more uncomfortable question: how many people will buy a ticket?
ALSO READ : Emmy Nominations Announcement Gets a Star Twist… Liza Colón-Zayas & Jeff Hiller Set to Reveal 2026 TV Nominees
A costly film facing a modest opening
According to Koimoi’s September 30 report, Digger was tracking for a North American opening below $15 million, against a reported production cost of approximately $125 million. These are reported estimates, rather than confirmed earnings or a final accounting of the film’s costs.
That gap explains the concern surrounding Warner Bros.. An expensive production needs sustained attendance, and a subdued debut would place greater pressure on subsequent weekends and overseas markets.
An opening forecast cannot establish a film’s eventual profit or loss. It can, however, reveal how much work remains for the campaign.
Reviews have complicated the pitch
The critical response has been sharply divided. People reported reactions ranging from admiration for the film’s audacity and Cruise’s commitment to criticism of its scale, coherence and tone.
For potential ticket buyers, that creates an uncertain proposition. Cruise’s presence attracts attention, but attention does not automatically translate into enthusiasm for an unfamiliar kind of film.
The promotional campaign has leaned into that disagreement. The Guardian described advertising that places harsh reactions alongside praise, using the controversy itself to generate interest. Whether that approach encourages curiosity or deepens hesitation remains an open question.
Why ‘Verity’ makes the weekend more intriguing
The Hollywood Reporter expects Digger to open substantially behind Verity, the Amazon MGM Studios adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel. hollywoodreporter.com
Starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett, Verity is also scheduled to open on October 2. Its psychological-thriller premise centres on a writer who discovers a disturbing manuscript while completing another author’s book series.
From a marketing perspective, an established novel and a recognisable thriller setup could offer a more immediate hook. Digger, by comparison, asks audiences to take a greater leap into unfamiliar territory.
The audience verdict is still ahead
Cruise has clearly committed to that leap. At the London premiere, Reuters reported that his transformation involved prosthetics and a padded bodysuit, alongside a demanding performance.
The commercial outcome remains unresolved. Strong audience recommendations could give Digger momentum beyond its initial forecasts. A weak response would make its financial challenge harder.
For now, the film’s biggest suspense lies beyond the screen: whether curiosity about Cruise’s unusual gamble becomes an opening-weekend ticket purchase.
How ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Returned to Cinemas and Reclaimed Box Office Glory
Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ Faces a Tough Opening: Could ‘Verity’ Take the Lead?
‘Verity’ Could Outopen ‘Digger’: Why Tom Cruise Faces a Tough Contest
‘Endgame’ Returns to No. 1 ‘Avatar’ Loses Its Box Office Throne
Mark Zuckerberg Faces a New Hollywood Reckoning Why Aaron Sorkin’s Film Hits Closer to Home
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