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Heat and Sunlight

Play trailer Poster for Heat and Sunlight 1987 1h 32m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 1 Reviews 43% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
A war photojournalist, Mel (Rob Nilsson), returns home to San Francisco after an assignment and obsesses over his girlfriend Carmen (Consuelo Faust) when she doesn't greet him at the airport. Their love affair is burning out and Mel masochistically fixates on their sexual relationship, plastering his walls with nude photographs of her when he finds out she's left him for someone else. Jealousy and violent memories consume Mel, and his anger boils over when he finally confronts her.

Critics Reviews

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Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews An agonizing low-budget improvised indie about a bunch of neurotics going ape over a relationship split. Rated: B Nov 18, 2012 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member There's a method to the madness of Heat and Sunlight, and ultimately it's that method that's worthy of our attention. Improvised observation as opposed to scripted narration creates an aesthetic all it's own. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member RATING (0 to ****): 1/2 Rob Nilsson is quite an obscure figure in cinema. Take the wonderful "Signal 7", and it's hard to understand why. But with "Heat and Sunlight", you can be thankful that, though the bad apples in the indie film barrel can never become financial bombs, they can fall deep into obscurity. His "Direct Action Cinema", which apparently has a goal of making movies 100% like real life or something like that, makes Dogme95 look very appealing in comparison. "Julien Donkey-Boy", which I consider the worst movie ever made, didn't turn me entirely off of Dogme, but only the second film I've seen under Nilsson's filmmaking method has ensured that I will not waste my time on another one of his films again. Of course, you're always bound to get a few loyal followers bound to worship this as a piece of high art. Nilsson seems aware of this- one of his characters is a stand-up comedian who wants to try something new: laugh-free comedy. "It's all jokes, but no punch-line. I want to play with the audience's expectations here." Congratulations, you did. But we didn't laugh, nor do we admire how clever it is. Like Nilsson seemed to dedicate "Signal 7" to Cassavetes, one would suspect this is his homage to Warhol's anti-films. For 94 minutes, we get to waste time watching montages between blurry photographs, to the blurrier cinematography of Nilsson as a man who spends the entirety of the film wallowing in self-pity, and occasionally throwing tantrums. The timestamps that occur during the film ultimately tell you this film takes place across 16 hours, and while that's certainly what it felt like, it was sufficient time to wonder why filmmakers find such irritating characters to be so appealing. Oh, and of course, in all this self-pity, he has sex. Nilsson makes us waste time watching 5 minutes of all the most unappealing angles of lovemaking, in slow-motion... and he's still the same ol', same 'ol afterwards. "Who cares? Why does it matter?" says one of his friends. Good point! MPAA: R (language and nudity including a scene of strong sexuality) Runtime: 1 hour, 37 minutes (94 minutes of "real movie") Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Heat and Sunlight

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Movie Info

Synopsis A war photojournalist, Mel (Rob Nilsson), returns home to San Francisco after an assignment and obsesses over his girlfriend Carmen (Consuelo Faust) when she doesn't greet him at the airport. Their love affair is burning out and Mel masochistically fixates on their sexual relationship, plastering his walls with nude photographs of her when he finds out she's left him for someone else. Jealousy and violent memories consume Mel, and his anger boils over when he finally confronts her.
Director
Rob Nilsson
Producer
Hildy Burns, Steve Burns
Production Co
New Front Films, Snowball
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 17, 2020
Runtime
1h 32m