San Antonio actor Jonathan Joss, known for his work on King of the Hill and Parks and Recreation, was fatally shot in a June 1 altercation outside his 200 Dorsey Dr address. The local celebrity was 59.
San Antonio Police say officers were dispatched to the scene for a shooting in progress. Joss was found outside the roadway at the South Side location and pronounced dead on the scene after life-saving measures failed. Suspect Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja has been detained and booked for murder.
Joss is best known for voicing John Redcorn on Fox’s animated series King of the Hill. During a May 30 panel at the ATX TV Festival in Austin, show creator Mike Judge confirmed he would be reviving the character in an upcoming Hulu reboot. Joss was in attendance at the event but not on the panel.
The ‘90s classic led to other Hollywood gigs, usually portraying Indigenous American roles. He memorably had a recurring role as Chief Ken Hotate on the NBC sitcom Parks & Recreation and acted in Westerns like the remakes of True Grit and The Magnificent Seven.
In January, an accidental blaze destroyed Joss’ South Side childhood home, killing three of his dogs. A fan raised $10,000 through a GoFundMe campaign to help the actor recover.
Family members have not released funeral details for the actor at press time. San Antonio Police say the criminal investigation is still ongoing.
The movies of writer/director Joe Swanberg have always been an acquired taste, as he prefers to give his actors a loose framework of a story and let them improvise most of their lines to give the films a more natural feel. Sometimes that approach can yield great results, and sometimes — as in The Sun Never Sets — it can result in addled and maddening storytelling.
Wendy (Dakota Fanning) is in her early 30s and at a crossroads in her life. When a friend announces she’s pregnant, she starts to re-evaluate what she wants, including her two-year relationship with the older Jack (Jake Johnson). Although they love each other, their disagreements on having more children and extracurricular activities call their long-term viability into question.
Jack, not wanting Wendy to settle, encourages her to explore her options where they live - Anchorage, Alaska - telling her he’ll be waiting should she strike out. What he doesn’t expect is that Wendy’s ex-boyfriend, Chuck (Cory Michael Smith), has returned to the city, giving her an attractive alternative. The three engage in a love triangle that proves frustrating and confusing for both the participants and the viewers.
What works best about the film is its location in Alaska, which rarely gets showcased in movies, and even more rarely in the way it is here. The story takes place in warmer months, and Swanberg gives his characters multiple opportunities to be outside, showing off Anchorage’s harbor, surrounding mountains, and seemingly vibrant city life. The subtle but effective way Swanberg frames various scenes makes the landscape enormously appealing.
It’s too bad, then, that the story never measures up to its surroundings. Too often Fanning, Johnson, Smith, and others seem to be grasping for their next line, unsure of what they want their character to do or say next. That lets their scenes mimic real conversations, but you might not realize how much you want scripted dialogue until you see actors trying to come up with their own in the moment.
The larger issue is that there’s no consistency from scene to scene about where the plot is heading. The characters of Wendy, Jack, and Chuck are extremely wishy-washy about their desires, with each of them vacillating back-and-forth in just how much they want to be with each other. Depending on your experience, this may or may not be true to life, but watching it is excruciating and not enjoyable or romantic in the slightest.
As actors, Fanning, Johnson, and Smith are talented and interesting, with each capable of connecting with viewers in different ways. But working in improvisation is a different beast, and only Johnson - who has worked with Swanberg multiple times - seems truly at home. A few others, like Debby Ryan and Anna Konkle, do well in the format and maybe deserved bigger parts.
Swanberg has proven in the past that his method of filmmaking can be insightful and entertaining, but that is not the case here. In The Sun Never Sets, his hands-off approach is a detriment to the flow of the film and the story as a whole, resulting in an experience that is far from what most viewers will want to go through.
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The Sun Never Sets is now playing in select theaters.
