You and the Night

Tech Scores: Directing 6 Screenplay 5 Cinematography 8 Editing 5 Acting 7 Sound Design & Music Score 8(M83!!) Other Techs 6 Overall Scores: Whole Movie 6 Myself 8 WoW 0

Star Rating: ★★★1/2

Beautiful set pieces (and I'm not just talking about the prosthetic) don't a movie make. This is like an awkwardly sexual Little Miss Sunshine, meaning a sexualized version of the indie tried and true "We're all screwed up" plot line that inevitably resolves itself with a "Let's be screwed up together!" The real shame is that Alain-Fabien Delon isn't a quarter as attractive as his père.

Like his brother in M83 (who soundtracks here), Yann Gonzalez combines gauzy, neon dreaminess and campy, garish artifice in a way that is simultaneously kitschy, absurd, and at times almost moving. He doesn't get the balance quite as right as his obvious forebears like Araki or Almodovar at their best, and he's altogether too derivative to rate alongside them, but it's a valiant, flawed effort nonetheless. To call it "pretentious" or "style over substance" is both true and missing the point.

This debut is perhaps a more original film than his sophomore Knife+Heart, and the comparison to Breakfast Club is quite apt. Gonzalez has a good eye for visuals & ear for songs - of course it helps that your brother is M83, but his scripts leave a lot to be desired. For a film set in an orgy, it’s actually quite tame stuff - just like Knife+Heart; they feel edgy at the start until you realize that they won't go very far. Dialogue is at times very naive and the characters are not believable.