SXSW 2026 Reviews: ‘Wishful Thinking,’ ‘The Sun Never Sets,’ ‘Obsession’
As you are trying to make your schedule for a film festival, you might start picking up on themes that come across several films, noticing patterns within the filmmaker’s thought process as they seem to somehow be sharing the same brain when it comes to making films that share a small form of DNA. In the case of two films in the Narrative Spotlight section and another in the Festival Favorites section, the common space they share are complex relationship stories centered around a couple trying to come to terms with the status of who they are with their significant other. Alongside this vital question also lies supernatural, realistic, or demonic forces testing our romantic protagonists on screening, leading to moving, satisfying, or gory conclusions. In seeing Wishful Thinking, The Sun Never Sets, and Obsession, it’s a triple feature date night brought to you by the gracious festival programmers from Austin, Texas.
Wishful Thinking (Dir. Graham Parkes)
The power of love is given an interesting twist in Graham Parkes’ directorial debut as we find Julia (Maya Hawke), a video game designer, and Charlie, a struggling musician who works a part-time job in sound recording, at each other’s throats all the time. Within the first scene of the film, we see Parkes use a montage of the routine emotional battle these two inflict on the other, ultimately leading them further apart than they were before their argument. In seeing this, their friends get them tickets to a session with twin spiritual healers, the Tillies (Kate Berlant in both roles), to see if their friend’s relationship has a chance of being saved. Reluctantly, the couple go, and are asked to come on stage in an experiment, and as they are sitting back to back, talking about the problems they have with one another, they start to sync up, saying the same thing, their energy connecting as one. It’s strange for them but they ignore it, and leave the stage, and return home that night, but everything changes when Julia and Charlie realized that their positive or negative energy of their relationship starts having not just an effect on them, but the people in their lives, their jobs, stock markets, global weather, and entire nations. In testing out their theory with either having sex and being loving to one another or yelling the worst things possible about their partner’s faults, they start to confront the reality of what this new power they have can do, and if their love can survive the ups and downs that lead to a larger impact outside of themselves.
It’s a smart premise, done with the romantic, independent filmmaking sensibilities of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Like Crazy or 500 Days of Summer, where two incredible performances are at the core of an inventive new story we’ve seen before, but ends on the maturity level of something like Before Sunset. Hawke and Pullman are electric together, easily delivering the best work of their young careers so far, as they manically try to figure out just how much they love each other, as well as dealing with the damage of their fights and what that means for everyone around them. It’s an honest commentary from Parkes about how communicate and connection are the cornerstone to a successful relationship, and if those are missing, then it might be best to walk away, no matter how painful it might feel to leave that person, as we see Julia try to leave Charlie a couple of times in the film, but she can’t, because the idea of leaving someone hurts more or is scarier than going out into the unknown world without that connection constantly being there. Beautiful, soulful, and tender, Wishful Thinking is a stellar entry into the pantheon of romance films that will have you hooked by its two magnificent performances and smart script, and leave you sobbing on your way out of the theater.
Grade: A-
The Sun Never Sets (Dir. Joe Swanberg)
One of the strongest independent filmmakers of the last decade was Joe Swanberg, an artist that used his improvisational filmmaking technique to make small, quiet, yet profound character studies of the modern human condition. This is no different than in his latest film. The Sun Never Sets, which follows Wendy (Dakota Fanning), a construction worker in a small Alaska town who is dating Jack (Jake Johnson), a divorced father of two and ten years old than Wendy. After putting the kids to bed one night, Wendy and Jack have a talk about their future, and Jack’s reluctance in wanting to get remarried and have more kids, while those are things might want to have in the future. In having this long, personal discussion, Jack comes to the conclusion that Wendy should use the summer to explore her options, and see if she’d find someone else that shares those values of starting a family with her, and if by the end of the summer she doesn’t, then they get back together like nothing ever happened. Puzzled at first by this, Wendy sets off on a journey of self-discovery that ends up with her having a fling with her ex-boyfriend Chuck (Cory Michael Smith), which causes Jack to have to rethink his pitch to Wendy given Chuck and her’s previous connection the past, and how he realized this plan might cost him the woman he loves.
As the events of the love triangle play out, The Sun Never Sets takes its time slowly getting under your skin, shifting from a film about a woman’s discovery of who she is to a loud critique of the toxic men in her life, and how they seek to desire her affection without considering who she is and how their actions have caused her to become confused and second guess herself. Swanberg, alongside the trio of performances from Fanning, Johnson, and Smith, have tapped into the ongoing frustrations of modern relationships, the pettiness that consumes them, leaving all three characters deserving more in life than having to put up with being emotionally treated like a prize on a shelf or a backup plan. While it can feel a little repetitive, that seems to be the point as The Sun Never Sets is a darkly funny, emotionally matter a fact journey of that the love you need sometimes isn’t another person, but the piece of knowing that you’ve grown up from your past experiences and blossomed into a better person in the end.
Grade: B
Obsession (Dir. Curry Barker)
In what is the defining film of the festival so far, Curry Barker’s Obsession announces itself as an early contender for the best film of the year. Bear (Michael Johnston) is a hopeless young man that works with his friends as a music store employee for one of their Dad’s friends’ shops. There he gets to connect with his co-worker, childhood friend, and the love of his life, Nikki (Inde Navarrette), as well as his best friend Ian (Cooper Tomlinson). When we first meet Bear, he and Ian are practicing how the young man is going to tell Nikki how he has feelings for her and that he’d like to take her out on a date, but is failing to come up with the words to express himself to her without sounding creepy as hell. On his way to pick her up for bar trivia one night, he decides to get her a gift at the local weed shop in town, and while he was first thinking about a necklace with her mood crystal, he stumbles upon a 1960-esque toy called a “One Wish Willow,” where you take it out of the box, open up, break what is inside in half, and you wish becomes true. When trivia night doesn’t go the way he thought it would, and as he drops Nikki off at her apartment for the night, Bear breaks the “One Wish Willow,” wishing that Nikki would love him, and only him, for the rest of her life. As dramatic as it sounds, it quickly works, with Nikki appearing outside, wanting to be with him that night, either at her place or at his. Conscience, luck, or something more sinister at play? To Bear, it doesn’t matter at first because Nikki professes his love for him, and the two start to date. But as things go on, and Nikki starts to get closer and closer to Bear, the more he and the audience start to realize, be careful what you wish for.
It’s a simple set up for Barker, a former YouTuber content creator turned filmmaker, as this is something most people in life at a young age think of; being with their crush by any means necessary, making their dreams come true. But Obsession brilliantly examines why this way of thinking is dangerous not just to Bear and Nikki, but all who come in their path as this selfish wish turns friends into enemies, and Nikki’s human form a victim of the Bear’s desire, while her soul is given up to a darker place not seen, but only heard in the film. Barker doesn’t allow his male lead to build full sympathy from the audience because he’s not the victim here, everyone else is because you don’t create love or fate, that happens if the universe allows it to manifest itself. In forcing this relationship to happen, violent, gory, bizarre events start becoming part of Bear’s life, with no way to turn back. Johnston and Navarrette are brilliantly cast in this film, with Navarrette delivering the stunning performance that will rank as one of the best by year’s end, alongside the film’s impeccable sound work, expert editing by Barker, and killer score by Rock Burwell. Obsession is a new modern horror masterpiece that makes Barker one of the latest voices in the genre to keep an eye on as he knocked it out of the park with this one, creating as interesting, engrossing, dark film that ranks up there with Zach Cregger’s Weapons as one of the best horror films of the decade so far.
Grade: A
Focus Features will release Obsession in theaters on May 15.
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