MQFF: Night Comes On

Night Comes On begins with a promise of a fresh start.

In the film’s opening minutes, the film’s 18-year-old protagonist Angel Lamere (played brilliantly by Dominique Fishback) is released from juvenile detention after a string of minor offences, including unlawful possession of a weapon. Those in charge of her release provide exposition on the past 18 years of Angel’s life: her father was arrested for murder, but later released; Angel has lived in 13 foster homes, and has been sexually abused by past foster families. An unseen woman asks blithely, “Why didn’t she report the abuse?” to which someone else replies: “She didn’t want to leave her sister alone.” Angel’s sister, Abby (Tatum Marilyn Hall), is now 10, and also in the foster care system. In the present, Angel walks the streets of Philadelphia, looking for somewhere to charge her phone. She has two pressing goals: get in contact her girlfriend, Maya, who had offered her a place to stay before Angel was locked up (though this doesn’t come to fruition), and get a gun so she can murder her father.

Her plan is revealed slowly, exactingly, as we watch Angel negotiate buying a gun from her ex-cellmate’s lecherous father (we also watch him grope, and sexually harass her, as Angel stands, inert, obviously inured to years of similar abuse). We see her fantasising about firing the shot that kills her father, and learn the horror of what her family has endured. Angel saw her father murder her mother, and, what’s more, he is now a free man, and teasingly attempting to build a relationship with Abby again.

These fantasies of enacting her revenge are buffeted by a visit to her parole officer (James McDaniel), who is unequivocal in his advice to her: he can’t help her if she won’t let him. Angel is, at first, reticent, but eventually she admits she used to want to be a teacher – an encouraging first step. However, Angel’s murder plot takes precedence, and she urges her parole officer to provide her father’s new address, so that she can get her birth certificate. He refuses, and Angel finally visits her sister Abby for information in foster care, under the pretence of a reunion. When Abby tells her she can show Angel where their father now lives (Abby doesn’t know the address, but remembers where it is), Angel agrees, and two young girls embark on a journey together, one that Angel believes she won’t be coming back from.

Though unsurprising perhaps in its conclusion, the film’s emotional depth, and affecting performances from Fishback and Hall, provide for an absorbing experience. A strong film debut from Jordana Spiro, Night Comes On, is a hauntingly familiar, yet inescapable, story of two young girls who learn how to stay together in the face of all that wants to separate them. You’ll likely shed a tear by its poignant last shot.

Night Comes On
Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2019
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