Daybreak Pacific

A morning film that earns its sentimentality. Hadley shoots six locations on the California coast across one continuous dawn, cut as if it were a single morning. Beck’s camera is curious without being twee; the music is the kind of acoustic cue that usually makes us cringe but here sits low and uninsistent.

The end card — one line of type, no tagline, no logo lockup — is the most disciplined choice in the film.