I didn't like the 90's grunge aesthetics (was Sherri based on Courtney Love?) of this film or the borderline soft-core porn sex scenes at the beginning. I get however that the scenes are there to show that both of the main characters are still acting out sexual dysfunction from the central traumatic event in the film. Owen prematurely ejaculates due to the trauma and has trouble getting close to people because he was sexually abused by his much older brother. Owen was just a child when they physically dragged him into the room, assaulted and threatened him into sexually performing against his will with this girl they were raping. As he says, his body betrayed him, and it is a common reaction for boys who are scared or nervous to get an erection; it is something many male survivors deal with.Yet Own is treated with contempt in the film, yelled at, hit, and people act like he deserves to have guilt. But Owen was also a survivor, suffering from PTSD and he deserved closure and healing just as much as Sherri did. He was not responsible for what happened but he did a great thing by coming back and trying to make some of it right. It's too bad that the film couldn't lend him a more sympathetic ear but rather uses him as a scapegoat for the anger the other characters feel about what happened to her. No one feels angry about what was done to him. There is no comparing pain, there is no hierarchy of trauma that justifies everyone self-righteously dismissing people like Owen.I only watched this film because I follow Gabriel Mann and because I am also a male survivor of sexual abuse, and child pornography where I was forced by adults to act out scenes with other children. And I'm certainly not partly to blame along with the child pornographers for that.

I worked as a volunteer at the L.A. Film Festival the year that "Things Behind the Sun" was its centerpiece, its main film of the festival. I wish I had known more about it at the time, because I would have loved to have seen it in person and talked to Allison Anders, its director.What a moving and gripping film. What happens in childhood, both good and bad, tends to stick with us throughout the rest of our lives. How we deal with trauma in our early years can scar and stunt us forever. That's what this film is about. It was horrifying to learn that the director, Allison, Anders, experienced rape at a young age as the girl in the film did, in Florida, in the exact same house that is used in the film. Kim Dickens, Gabriel Mann, Don Cheadle, Eric Stoltz, Elizabeth Pena and Rosanna Arquette all give stellar performances in this little-scene film. The music by Sonic Youth is a haunting addition to the movie.This was an independently made film, which should have won tons of awards and gotten more publicity. I have caught it on cable and can now purchase it on DVD. I highly recommend this film, but it's not for the squeamish or easily offended. Years later, I still remember how great a movie it is.

...is something Allison Anders expresses in her films, and wow, filming in the house where she herself was raped as a child shows her engagement with the movie. It's her compassionate and tough look at how many lives rape irreversibly affects. Films about rape or child molestation aren't probably going to be box office smashes anytime soon, but don't deny yourself this beautiful film just because the subject material is uncomfortable. Great dialogue, strong acting (especially by Kim Dickens and Don Cheadle), and the usual great script and direction by Alison Andres. Listen to the DVD commentary afterwards for more on this amazing film and the artist behind its creation, Ms. Andres.

I've seen. Slow and painful this story gets into the psyche of the victims unlike most other stories treating the same subject. The stories and writing style of Joyce Carol Oates came to mind through the intentionally slow, methodical pacing revealing each layer of the painful retelling of the victims' stories.Arquette gives a brilliant performance as does Cheedle and Stoltz. Gabrielle Mann comes off a little too 'waah, waah, Mr. Sensitive author' but there's an honesty that rings true in his performance and works nicely with the others.I think the only way this movie could improve is to perform it on stage. It has an intimacy that could resonate much more effectively then on the screen. All in all, I highly recommend it.