Night Comes On

2018, 87 Minutes, DCP
USA

Director: Jordana Spiro

Cast: Dominique Fishback, John Earl Jelks, Max Casella, Tatum Marilyn Hall

Eighteen-year-old Angel leaves her stint in juvenile detention with nothing but a few bucks and a dead cellphone. After serving time for unlawful possession of a weapon, she’s thrown back onto the streets and into a world riddled with the demons of her past. Her little sister, Abby, is stuck in foster care while her dad, responsible for the murder of their mother, roams free in some undisclosed suburb. But Angel, strong-willed and resourceful, has a quick-fix plan: find Abby, get a gun, hunt down her father, and hit the reset button on her and her sister’s life.

Filmmaker Jordana Spiro and co-writer Angelica Nwandu paint a tough but intimate portrait of sisterhood amid a hostile landscape where kids and young adults, desperate for guidance, are instead forced to fend for themselves. Naturalistic dialogue and restrained but deeply felt dynamics between the two sisters breathe humor and warmth into scenes otherwise loaded with tension. Night Comes On is a raw and lyrical coming-of-age tale and a testament to Spiro’s gifts as a nuanced and empathetic storyteller on the rise.

 

“A magnetic presence at the center of virtually every scene, [Fishback] gives a beautifully internalized performance, defined by taciturn Angel’s anger but softened by her scarred humanity.” — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

“Night Comes On is about loss, pain, revenge and what women (Black women in particular) are forced to endure. However, at its core, the film is about sisterhood and all of the joys and aches that come with it.” — Aramide A. Tinubu, Shadow and Act

 

Winner of the NEXT Innovator Award at the Sundance Film Festival