Always Shine

Anna and Beth are both actresses, and they were once close friends. Years of competition and envy have worn that friendship down, and a weekend away at a house in Big Sur is meant to repair it. Instead, the isolation of the setting brings their buried resentments to the surface, and their sense of who they are and what they mean to each other starts to come apart.

Sophia Takal directed Always Shine, her second feature, from a screenplay by Lawrence Michael Levine, with Takal, Levine and Pierce Varous producing. Mackenzie Davis plays Anna and Caitlin FitzGerald plays Beth, with Levine, Khan Baykal, Alexander Koch and Michael Lowry in supporting roles. It is a small-scale independent American production.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 5.4 out of 10 from 156 votes, while a film critics' rating stands at 7.1 out of 10 from 53 reviews, a notable gap between professional and audience response. Takal went on to direct Black Christmas in 2019 and Act One in 2026.