Like it [Almost] never Happened: Sunshine Cleaning

In the opening sequence of this bleak yet defiant little movie, a man freshens his breath before entering a gun shop, ostensibly to buy a shotgun. In the very next second, his brains and blood are spattered on the ceiling  (and in other locations) of the shop, and is being analysed by the requisite Police team.

So what? What does that have to do with the title? As it happens, the officer leading the investigation Mac (Steve Zahn) is the married lover of  Rose (Amy Adams), the "heroine" who is struggling with raising a young son (fathered by said Mac), financial pressure, the presence and antics of her father (Alan Arkin, in another winning performance) as well as those of her sister Norah, well played by Emily Blunt (The Adjustment Bureau).

When Mac  - prompted by the aformentioned suicide and the attedant clean-up expense - suggests that a potential income stream exists, Rose jumps right on it, even without any proper knowledge of what crime scene clean-up and biohazard disposal entails.

Into that knowledge breach steps Winston (Clifton Collins Jr) who as the one-armed wonder of the clean-up business, also helps the girls out by sitting with Rose's son - doing a better job than either her sister or her Dad.

There's a lot going on here. Rose, once the archetypal "cheerleader and most likely to succeed" from high school spends nights on her illicit trysts with her married beau and struggling with self-esteem over the "going nowhere affair" (Norah cruelly informs her that mac's wife is pregnant) and her overall downward spiral, of which the economic aspect is somewhat halted by the crime clean-up business. Her son has been acting up at school and Norah simply won't get her own life together.

It might not make for much humour, but the two women manage to wring some comedy out of it, playing a script written by one woman (Megan Holley) and directed by another (Christine Jeffs). There's another woan who figures in the film, though not quite shown; the girls' mother. Her death (and by extension, her life) is a divisive issue for Rose and Norah to work out and of course this has implications for the conclusion.

While it's no one's idea of "family entertainment" (expletives, sexual situations and of course, there's that shotgun suicide right at the beginning), Sunshine Cleaning does have family at its heart, and it is a film with loads of heart, as well as a load on the heart. Something a little different will come your way, but ultimately worth it.

Rozanne Vereen poses an Interesting "?"

The scheduling wasn't her doing, but Jamaican filmaker Rozanne Vereen managed to pull off a neat little save during the recent re-run of the 2013 Short Film Festival, which had its initial run as part of the Kingston on the Edge (KOTE) arts fest. This time around, convenor David Morrison ran the films as part of his regular Friday night slate at the Liguanea Club.

Perhaps driven by a need to get the "dross" out first, the evening began with two gleefully campy flops, both written directed and funded by US expatriate Michael "Keyboard Money Mike" Williams. The latter, a cheap (and cheap-looking) Terminator spoof, preceded by a slightly more substantial but still shoddy story about a down-on-his-luck janitor who decides to impersonate his record company boss for kicks.

Director Rozanne Vereen (right) with her two leads from the movie "?"

The came Vereen's work, a cut (above from the get-go, with its atmospheric opening and general air of mystery. Titled '?' — a single question mark - and set in Paris(?), it begins with the aftermath of lovemaking. The man receives a call urgently summoning him to a meeting or assignment of which we are given no details.

he searches for a particular address, and on the way is intercepted and  assaulted, we assume by a group of men. The scene only suggests that the assault may have been sexual, a suggestion strengthened by the man's rapidly deteriorating mental state and paranoia in the aftermath. His hapless wife, unable to cope with these mysterious changes, and unable to extract any details, takes the obvious route of separation, but their troubles do not end there.  

The film is full of uncertainty and has no conventional resolution. But critically, Vereen presents the story to the viewer without seeking to accommodate, a great credit to her narrative and visual skills. The audiences sees the tense exchanges between husband and wife, matched with his direct physical retreat (blocking out all light, refusing sexual advances) as the internal pressure mounts. There is the inevitable impulse to wonder why he chooses not to speak out, even to one whom he is supposed to trust. It subtly speaks volumes about the state of the relationship prior to the incident, but the director gives us no easy answers.

All in all, a very engaging effort, one we hope will be expanded into feature length.