valis1949 THINGS BEHIND THE SUN (dir. Allison Anders) Sherry is the hard-drinking lead singer of a Floridian alternative-country-rock band who has been deeply traumatized by a violent incident from her past. Sherry was raped as a young teenager, and has never been able to deal with pain and emotional fallout of this event. Just as her band begins to enjoy wider exposure, a writer from an underground magazine mysteriously informs her of missing information about the rape that might allow her to put the incident behind her, or irrevocably throw them both over the edge. Great ensemble acting by a terrific cast, and the film deals with more than just the act of rape, but addresses the moral complicity of an observer of rape who chooses to do nothing. This is truly 'An Overlooked Film', and it really deserves much wider acclaim. Great understated performances by Don Cheadle, Eric Stoltz, Rosanna Arquette, and features a cameo by singer/songwriter, J. Mascis, of the legendary alternative-rock band, DINOSAUR JR.......... MUST SEE

detroitrockscene This movie had potential but it seems it was mainly a vehicle for the director to try to exorcise her personal demons. The male lead spends the vast majority of the film mewling and whining ineffectually about what he failed to do as a child while failing (again) to provide any consolation to the victim. Perhaps he was a projection of the director's feeling of helplessness, but it makes for an annoying and unsympathetic character. The saving grace is a good soundtrack made up of obscure but wonderful 60's classics and some great new songs. If the musicians had been anything like the male lead, they would have moped about what they hadn't recorded or written, let down everyone who depended on them, and stood by doing and saying nothing while pretending to help.

Cosmoeticadotcom The best way to kill a technically well made film is through a bad screenplay. Exhibit 1A: filmmaker Allison Anders' 2003 Showtime film Things Behind The Sun. Ostensibly based upon Anders' real life 'trauma' of being raped as a child, the film wallows in every manner of cliché on the subject of victimhood imaginable, as well as wasting some fine performances, save that of the ever PC and increasingly hyperbolic Don Cheadle, whose performance here presages his terrible role in last year's Oscar-winning Crash.Yet, for all the potential this film has- and which a better and/or more objective director may have well exploited, it bogs down in the sort of Feminist PC clichés that made Monster such a bad film. The men are either unrepentant beasts- like Dan and his rapist pals, or wimpy excuses for men- like Owen and Chuck, straight out of the Alice Walker school of misandry. The film even ends with a trite dedication to Anders' long dead grandmother, described as a rape 'survivor,' not 'victim.'Yet, despite this seeming sensitivity, instead of showing how the vast majority of rape victims actually do adjust, mature, and cope with their violation, then move on, Anders indulges the Hollywood cliché of the eternal victim who cannot move on. This is, however, in keeping with the film's immature schizophrenic attitudes toward sex and psychology. As example, it also has too many pointless T&A scenes of sex, yet no male genitalia. Yes, we know Owen is impotent, so why do we need to see him try banging two different women, and failing? That such gratuitous, and sexist, sex is in this film is startling since the rest of the film is so PC. And, as a whole, the film is far too long at two full hours, and could lose much of its first forty minutes by just getting Owen back to Florida, and cutting the scenes of him shooting blanks. Yet, if that were not enough, there is the bizarre threesome scene with Sherry and two of her groupies, climaxing to furious rock music- an obvious steal from the famous drug scene of Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now, to the music of The Doors' The End. Even worse, though, is the whole device of the flashbacks tells too much of the story, and lessens the impact of Owens' telegraphed guilt, as well the impact of the film.Things Behind The Sun is, ultimately, an example of the old good intentions lead to….trope, and fails as a work of art, despite glimmers of breaking through its self-imposed political strictures. In that way it recapitulates its main characters' failures to move beyond themselves. If only such a trope had been ameliorative. Ah, well, there's always tomorrow, Allison.

robtheo1973 I caught this movie in the early AM hours and could not stop watching, even though I needed to get some sleep. I had to watch the whole thing after investing the time and energy in the first hour.I was amazed at the subtleties in the ending. The first real smile on the face of Sherry at the end was amazing. Up until that point, any smile had seemed forced or under the influence.The one element that made me scratch my head was during Sherry's first meeting with the adult Owen that had come to interview her. It seemed to me that she should have had all of those feelings come flooding back as soon as she heard his whole name. She obviously would have blocked out anything that occurred after the rape, but young Owen was her best friend/first crush. I felt that she easily would have recalled that, but not anything that included him in the rape.I read in another comment that the subject matter of this film is something that women are frequently familiar with. Just as familiar is the feeling that the character of Chuck experienced. He was forced to try to steady the ship until Sherry finally reconciled what had happened in whatever manner she could. He had no outlet and no way to help her until she was ready.