THE STORY – Risking everything to secure a future for herself and her brother, Lynette sets out on a dangerous odyssey, confronting her dark past throughout one propulsive night.
THE CAST – Vanessa Kirby, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Zachary Gottsagen, Stephan James, Julia Fox, Eli Roth, Randall Park & Michael Kelly
THE TEAM – Benjamin Caron (Director) & Sarah Conradt (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 109 Minutes
It may start like any other day for tough-as-nails Lynette (Vanessa Kirby), but the night quickly turns into an exhaustive, nightmarish odyssey in Benjamin Caron’s “Night Always Comes.” Adapted from Willy Vlautin’s novel of the same name and focusing on one woman’s struggle to navigate a housing crisis, Caron and screenwriter Sarah Conradt place us in the middle of an increasingly tense evening filled with dangerous situations, shady characters, and strong-willed determination to see a goal through. It’s another standout performance from Kirby, who juggles so many different facets of Lynette’s life, and a stark reminder of a reality that millions of Americans are facing today. Though it has some cliches, it’s a visceral viewing experience through and through.
It’s the day Lynette has been waiting for and working toward for years – closing on her family home – and all she needs is for her mother, Doreen (Jennifer Jason Leigh), to show up on time to sign a $25,000 loan. If they don’t get that money for their down payment, they’ll be evicted, and her little brother Ken (a loveable and sweet Zachary Gottsagen) will be taken away again by social services. That’s not a hypothetical situation, but a given: Newscasts are heard reporting on people struggling to afford necessities, and images of homeless encampments and people living in their cars fill the screen. Lynette also works multiple jobs and attends classes to do right by her family, but it’s still never enough. When it matters most, Doreen doesn’t show. Instead, she does something even more irresponsible and incomprehensible by buying a brand-new car for that same amount of money. Leigh is brilliant as she acts so nonchalantly about the whole thing, while Kirby’s inner screaming can be felt miles away.
That home represents a future with safety and stability for Lynette and her family, and she’s not willing to give that up. With no one else to count on but herself, she has until 9 a.m. the following day to come up with the $25,000 before the seller takes the next best offer. It sends her on an unhappy path down memory lane, forcing her to seek help from the wrong people, knock on dangerous doors, and endure immense anguish to find the comfort she desperately wants.
Given the relevance of this film, it’s easy to think about how far we’d be willing to go to have a roof over our heads. For Lynette, it involves becoming the person she promised she’d never be again, and it’s a thrill ride to see everything the night brings. She turns to one of her rich clients (Randall Park) for a loan, but he scoffs in her face. Sadly, she’s in no position to turn down paid sex from him, even though we can feel how much it hurts her. With time ticking and her desperation growing, her actions become increasingly unhinged. First, it’s stealing an expensive car from her client. Then, it’s requesting $3,000 that her friend Gloria (a hilarious Julia Fox) owes her. When she doesn’t get it, she escalates things by getting her coworker Cody (Stephan James) to help steal a safe from Gloria’s apartment and taking it to a shady “locksmith.” The night’s events get more and more over-the-top, but you believe all of it because of Kirby’s dedicated performance. You genuinely feel that she’s running out of time and that her life will fall apart if she doesn’t get the money. With frequent flashbacks to her past, which include her being a teenage escort, it’s clear to see that things will not end well for her if she doesn’t have a stable home again.
Throughout the night, the most devastating moments come not from all the things she has to do or the people she has to seek out, but from the indifference she endures from others. The people at her bar job don’t care that she has to take care of her brother who has Down Syndrome; Park’s character looks at her almost disgustingly when she asks for a loan and treats it as a joke; Gloria is more worried about her “vibe” being ruined than helping out her friend; and even Cody, who chooses to help her throughout the night, finds a way to turn his back on her. But the interaction that takes the cake for most heartbreaking is her conversation with her mother, who has given up on Lynette and any future they may have together. It provides another reflective moment that makes us ask who we would turn to in a moment of crisis such as this, and if we’d get the type of support we’d need. As one news broadcast in the film says, it’s not one person’s bad decisions that often lead to homelessness; it’s systemic issues, economic hardships, personal crises, and a whole host of others. Any one of us could be unhoused at a moment’s notice, and just showing a little bit of kindness or giving them the time of day could make a world of difference. Now, that doesn’t mean that Lynette is a walk in the park. She’s tough, stubborn, and doesn’t care about the people she’s seeking out on her odyssey. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and she shows the strength you have to possess to get what you want.
Other than Lynette’s frantic actions, plenty of elements in “Night Always Comes” bring out the tension of this night. Timestamps flash across the screen frequently, showing just how quickly she’s running out of time. Eerie, suspenseful music during crucial scenes, like when she heads to a shady guy’s garage on the outskirts of town, kicks into overdrive and puts us on the edge. Things even turn into a horror movie when she needs to make a fast getaway, or when she visits Tommy (Michael Kelly), the man who exploited her as a teenager, and his friend Blake (Eli Roth). Often, though, there’s not enough time with these characters, and they end up being nothing more than cliches. Thankfully, a film as intense as this still makes time to sweeten things up with Gottsagen’s Ken, who effortlessly makes you smile as he tries to protect his sister and shows off some killer rapping skills.
Though “Night Always Comes” plays up the drama for entertainment purposes, it’s a story that speaks volumes about this country’s current housing crisis. One night can make the difference between being housed and living on the streets. Kirby’s soulful performance shows just how far one person is willing to go to keep their loved ones safe. However, it doesn’t have to be like that; real change will need to happen across the board so that stories like this can, hopefully, one day, be less common.
