Detailed item info | Movie description | SUNSHINE STATE, directed and written by John Sayles, takes a close-up and occasionally comic look at the fading community of Delrona Beach, Florida. A dozen local personalities are introduced, each with their own unique challenges. The town's dilapidated houses, its stale Buccaneer Days Festival, its sluggish economy, and the constant stream of developers trying to buy up the shore front, are making the natives think about moving on. However, the black residents of Lincoln Park refuse to let their land be bought and turned into a vacation resort. Dr. Lloyd (Bill Cobbs) leads the charge to stage a protest, and tries to get help from Eunice (Mary Alice) her daughter Desiree (Angela Bassett), who is visiting from Boston. On the other side of things, Marly (Edie Falco), a former Weeki Wachee mermaid, is the surly manager of the dingy Sea-Vue Motel who would like nothing more than to sell the joint and leave Delrona Beach for good.
With a dizzy, meandering camera and a documentary feeling, SUNSHINE STATE draws viewers into the daily life of Delrona Beach, developing each of nearly a dozen characters with detail and feeling. While the plotlines are sometimes depressing, the realness of the characters and their lives is endearing, and at the end of the film, the narrative gets a satisfying dose of closure.
| | Credits | | Producer: | Maggie Renzi | | Cast: | Alan King, Charlayne Woodard, Clifton James, Cullen Douglas, Mary Alice, Mary Steenburgen, McMurray, Michael Greyeyes, Miguel Ferrer, Perry Lang, Richard Edson, Tom Wright |
| | Details | | Sound: | Stereo Sound, |
| | Notes | DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Widescreen
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.0 - English
Additional Release MateriaL
Audio Commentary - 1. John Sayles - Director
Trailers
Interactive Features:
Interactive Menus
Scene Selection
Theatrical Release: JUNE 21, 2002 (NY/LA)
| | Editorial reviews | "...The large ensemble boasts a number of vivid characters, embodied by a superb cast..."
Movieline - p.36-8 - Stephen Farber
"...Exquisite performances and strong atmospheric cinematography....The ensemble is aces -- the performances are what linger when Sayles has made his point....It's a film that stays with you..."
Box Office - Sheri Linden (06/01/2002)
"...SUNSHINE STATE has several potent performances in it....This remains a film about something, one that attempts and often achieves a level of connection and concern..."
Los Angeles Times - p.C22 - Kenneth Turan
"...A spacious American epic....It creates a cinematic mosaic of American lives unprecedented in its range, balance, subtlety and even-handedness..."
New York Times - p.E1 - Stephen Holden
"...Sayles has not tilted toward obvious political or social commentary, buts sees each character lovingly, as an individual whose present needs are more important than ideology..."
Chicago Sun-Times - p.5 - Roger Ebert
"No filmmaker evokes a sense of community more warmly than John Sayles..."
Entertainment Weekly - Bruce Fretts (11/22/2002)
"...[Falco] is exquisitely vulnerable, and her scenes play well with Hutton, in his finest role in years..."
Variety - p.22 - Robert Koehler
"...Edie Falco sparks the film....You can feel the heat that ignites this gripping tale, and the humor and humanity that root it in feeling..."
Rolling Stone - p.116 - Peter Travers
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