SUN DOGS
In 2016 I collaborated with actress Jennifer Morrison on her debut film as director ‘Sundogs’.
“Morrison balances her affection for all the characters with droll naturalism and an assured visual style.”
Hollywood Reporter
Morrison has cited Hal Ashby’s Being There as a key inspiration. The idea of a sheltered, innocent soul being mistaken for — and becoming — a heroic figure, à la the 1979 film’s Chauncey Gardiner, is an essential aspect of Sun Dogs‘ story, and there’s a strong ‘70s sensibility to the character-driven film.
‘Trailer below click on arrow to ‘play’.
Michael Angarano, recently seen in Oppenheimer, leading an excellent cast, inhabits the role of a single-minded misfit without the slightest hint of mawkishness, embracing his exasperating qualities no less than his endearing ones. Morrison balances her affection for all the characters with droll naturalism and an assured visual style.pariatur.
“Toplining a cast that includes Melissa Benoist, Xzibit, Allison Janney and Ed O’Neill, Michael Angarano plays a well-meaning but deluded oddball in ‘Sun Dogs,’ Jennifer Morrison’s directing debut.”
At its essence, Sun Dogs is a story about compassion. That’s the subject of Ned’s every meaningful interaction, whether tender or comically deadpan, and whether he’s offering advice or receiving it. Rather than reaching for irony, Morrison lets the story’s sincerity shine, not just in Ned and Tally’s openhearted exchanges but in the unexpectedly paternal benevolence of Xzibit’s military man and in the exquisitely lived-in performances of Janney and O’Neill as Ned’s parents. Though their words may be tinged with regret, Rose and Bob are, in different ways, inspired by the indefatigable Ned, and still trying. There’s no question, in Angarano’s portrayal and the film as a whole, that this eccentric do-gooder would have such an effect.
