Night Always Comes, 2025.
Directed by Benjamin Caron.
Starring Vanessa Kirby, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Zack Gottsagen, Stephan James, Julia Fox, Eli Roth, Randall Park, Michael Kelly, J. Claude Deering, Dana Millican, Curtis McGann, Jake McDorman, Jennifer Lanier, Jason Rouse, and Smack Louis.
SYNOPSIS:
Risking everything to secure a future for herself and her brother, Lynette sets out on a dangerous odyssey, confronting her own dark past over the course of one propulsive night.
From director Benjamin Caron (with a screenplay by Sarah Conradt adapting Willy Vlautin’s novel), Night Always Comes is well-intentioned but overly blunt, which breaks apart the intended gritty realism. Not only is this a film about the dehumanization and vilification of the poor class, it’s the type of movie that spends ten minutes hammering that home from the car radio, practically touching upon every eventual plot point that will arise. Speaking of those plot points, there is an episodic flow to the narrative, seemingly for the sole purpose of pushing its protagonist from one risky or humiliating situation to another. By the time some truly tragic childhood trauma is revealed, nothing here feels sincere or earned, but more about cheap shock values that place no meaningful value on characterization.
Lynette (Vanessa Kirby) juggles several jobs (everything from restaurant duties to sex work and more in between), providing for her Down syndrome big brother Kenny (Zack Gottsagen, so charming and wonderful in The Peanut Butter Falcon, here reduced to nothing more than a burden and a glorified object servicing the story) and carefree, selfish mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Set to meet with a realtor and close a deal to purchase a new home, getting away from a childhood house of troubling memories, Lynette and her mother are expected to hand over $25,000 and sign the paperwork. The new home would also allow her to be a more responsible guardian to Kenny.
In one of the most glaringly obvious cases of “there wouldn’t be a movie unless something contrived roadblocks that from happening”, that mom blows the money on a car, expressing that it was time for her to focus on herself for a change. Shocked and angry, Lynette is thrust into a long-winded night (not just for her, but this sluggish movie itself), setting aside her low-paying, honest work to pull in that same amount of cash, given one last chance to present it by morning.
The most intriguing of these detours comes from her interactions with friend Gloria (Julia Fox in a small role), an escort who has hit a sugar daddy jackpot, living the high life by association. Concerningly and perhaps true to life, she has also adopted a “got mine” personality, showing no interest in repaying some debts to Lynette that would greatly help with the funding. There is an entire movie here to explore how society not only turns the poor against the poor, but also how those who escape it might be so enamored in their new life and terrified to go back, that they lose a sense of empathy for helping out people they supposedly consider friends. It wouldn’t be fair to say that Gloria doesn’t care about Lynette’s situation, but rather that she has become self-absorbed and more worried about whether her wealthy client is still attracted to her. If he isn’t, well, she’s right back to the bottom of the totem pole with Lynette.
Instead, Gloria runs off to meet up with her client, conveniently allowing Lynette to stay in her apartment home that coincidentally has a safe filled with money. Then, in an eye-widening creative choice, Lynette reconnects with Cody (Stephan James), a formerly incarcerated Black man (he explains that he was set up), to crack that safe. Admittedly, Cody is aware of the casual racism behind this inquiry, but the movie seems to be operating on the logic of “get a Black man to play the criminal roped into more crime.”
Several other characters are introduced, including Tommy (Michael Kelly), who groomed the “wild child” Lynette when she was 16. In her desperation, Lynette looks to make an exchange for some money. At one point, Eli Roth also pops up as the seedy head of a house party, looking to swap cash for drugs. Lynette is also forced to bring Kenny along for the ride and into some of this danger, fighting shady characters and pushing back against her trauma to come up with the money.
The issue is that, while competent and watchable, Night Always Comes doesn’t have much momentum for a crime thriller of such one-night urgency. Despite an impressive ensemble and a strong, engaging performance from Vanessa Kirby, everything feels detached (another dropped subplot involves Lynette’s sex work client, played by Randall Park) and as if it’s a narrative searching for scenarios to place its protagonist into without any understanding of what it does for the characterization or the social commentary it’s aiming for. There are stakes, but the execution is empty; it always comes across as a capital M movie rather than a story with authenticity. Then there is the ending, which is meant to be progressive but comes across as selfish and repugnant, aligning with Jennifer Jason Leigh’s mother of all people. Hopefully, better movies come next.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
