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# There Are Questions in Search of Answers in "Sunspot”
- URL: https://www.moviegoingwithbill.com/sunspot/
- Published: 2022-10-06T12:51:45.000Z
- Updated: 2025-09-27T23:25:47.000Z
- Description: Where lo-fi days turn to loving weeks.
- Author: Bill Arceneaux
- Tags: Reviews, #Migrated-1759014615461, #Import 2025-09-27 18:21

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Official still

## Dear Moviegoers,

I’m unsure as to the likelihood of such an instance, but in the case of *Sunspot*, director Brian Mihok has achieved a film on the same wavelength as Jim Jarmusch’s *The Limits of Control*. Few movies represent something so full of air and so full of ideas and questions as *Limits* does, even if - and especially if - it’s not a particularly well-enjoyed entry. For me, *Limits* has a certain lasting power despite not having, on purpose, much “happening.” *Sunspot* is very much exactly this, though its happenings are easier to grasp.

# It’s childlike by design, but it’s also an effect of living in a place and space that moves and orbits oh so gradually. 

Described as having a “minimalist aesthetic,” *Sunspot* indeed utilizes its small-town USA setting and its overall ethereal whimsy to a maximum. It’s about low-income working-class friends and neighbors who just try to get by day to day, as experienced through the observations and the inquisitiveness of a young woman named River. Almost every conversation she has involves a few questions about the other person or persons she’s speaking with. It’s childlike by design, but it’s also an effect of living in a place and space that moves and orbits oh so gradually. 

I wouldn’t classify *Sunspot* as a drama, even though it has the notions of one. Characters mostly just make somewhat kindly chit-chat in quiet and sporadic fits and bursts, rarely going above high whispers.

# And thus, *Sunspot* has a feeling of comfort about it. It’s a romance after all. 

In one extended sequence, River takes a ride from a young man passing through. They end up spending the day together, walking through grass and woods, taking in the scenery, and falling for one another cutely. It’s fleeting, but it’s nice. That’s what this is - a fleeting but nice romance. With what? With growing up. With being. With being around others. That’s nice.

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[Leave a comment](#ghost-comments-root)

There’s a lag to both *Sunspot* and *The Limits of Control*, but with *Sunspot*, patience is not being purposefully tested, and it never feels as though it’s biding time (not that *Limits* is doing that). Both are complete visions from craftsmen, and both have questions that are asked but rarely directly answered, but only *Sunspot* has the feeling of familiarity, of the audience potentially recognizing these questions, as they’re the general ones that most people generally have when just going through the grind. And thus, *Sunspot* has a feeling of comfort about it. It’s a romance after all. 

*The Limits of Control* is, to me, a comedy of dry sorts. While it and *Sunspot* share the fullness of thoughts and a void of convenience, they do differ in at least one way. I wanted *Limits* to finish quickly, but I didn’t want *Sunspot* to end anytime soon. Get to the punchline, but stay in love for as long as you can. This Brian Mihok guy is quite the filmmaker. Jarmuschian, even. **4/5**

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*Sunspot* is currently touring the film festival circuit.

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## Sincerely Yours in Moviegoing,

![](https://www.moviegoingwithbill.com/content/images/2025/09/40463e2c-23b2-4f47-8272-c6c17fb753df_257x257.png)

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