SIFF Review: Night Catches Us in Slowmo

A White Tank Top Movie Review

My experience of watching Tanya Hamilton’s debut feature Night Catches Us was mind-bending, but the effect was only partially caused by the film itself.  SIFF 2010 organizers have apparently decided that the ideal temperature for movie-going inside the Egyptian Theatre is 80˚ and thermostats are adjusted accordingly. 

Even after stripping down to t-shirts, we still had to deal with the bizarrely slow frame-by-frame speed of the projection.  I heard the viewing described as “like watching a streaming internet video on a dial-up connection.”   More charitably, I would say certain pans were reminiscent of Wong Kar Wai’s signature slow-mo tracking shots, except the cachet wore off quickly as it continued over a 90-minute film.  I can’t imagine this peculiarity was Hamilton’s intent and it’s unfortunate we had to watch the film that way.

On the plus side, I got to enjoy thousands of mini freeze-frames that captured the beautiful ensemble cast.  Anthony Mackie (in full Hurt Locker smolder) and Kerry Washington (who maintains a perfectly kempt afro and lawyer clothes in all situations) star as Marcus and Patty, two former Black Panthers trying to settle down in bicentennial Philadelphia summer (one odd thing is that all former Black Panthers seem to own or have access to lovely, large houses with manicured lawns and hedges). 

Read the full review after the jump.

The protagonists are challenged by former castmates of all stripes from The Wire.  Wendell Piece (Bunk Moreland on the show) is a crooked cop trying to keep Marcus under his thumb and, in a not-so-shocking turn, Jamie Hector (Marlo “MY NAME IS MY NAME” Stanfield) plays a hardened Panther still protecting his turf. I was excited to learn that Mr. Hector’s signature scar under is mouth is real (it adds a certain edginess to his beard in this film).    

If only all these fine actors had some good lines to deliver! The dialogue is painfully stilted and direct.  I read advanced praise for newcomer Jamara Griffin as Patty’s daughter, Iris, but she has little to do besides ask basic 10-year-old’s questions and sit forever on the porch as adults walk past.  As I cringed through the climactic scene between Marcus and Patty, I had the sense that the actors were reciting their characters’ motivations for speaking rather than acting out a conversation that approximated things people would actually say.  We hear “I need this,” and “I can’t do that,” with a distressing lack of specificity or realism.

Elsewhere, Hamilton oscillates between good and bad directorial impulses. Interstitial black and white documentary footage of Black Panther training camps?  Good idea.  Rudimentary animated sequences of Black Panthers swinging clubs?  Bad idea.  In one scene she uses an ill-advised “peeling back the wallpaper” visual metaphor then follows it up with a gorgeous, dramatic shot of cops’ feet walking over grass at dawn.  The talent of the cast and crew makes Night Catches Us watchable, but nothing more.  I can heartily recommend The Roots’ score to the film though — it’s thick with great soul samples and riffs.

What's on at SIFF tonight?  Well, Night Catches Us for starters (click through for showtimes); When We Leave at Pacific Place; Every Day at Harvard Exit and Nowhere Boy at the Admiral. Read our staff reviews of these films, or see what else is on the SIFF guide.