Night Catches Us

Night Catches Us

90 Minutes

Night Catches Us takes place in Philadelphia circa 1976, but its characters are still haunted by events that transpired in the decade prior. Haunted by the shade of the Black Panther movement, the characters in writer-director Tanya Hamilton’s feature debut must decide whether to move forward or let the past swallow them whole. The film begins when Marcus (Anthony Mackie) returns home after an extended absence. All of his former friends believe he sold out the Panthers to FBI, resulting in the death of one of their comrades. Meanwhile, Patty (Kerry Washington) is still grappling with her husband’s murder while holding onto remnants of the movement and shielding the truth from her young daughter Iris (Jamara Griffin).

Hamilton takes her time establishing her characters and their motivations. While Marcus and Patty fall in love and Iris learns the truth of her father’s death, Patty’s cousin Jimmy (Amari Cheatom), a slow and irate young man who makes a living collecting soda cans, dreams of ways to reignite the Panthers by enacting violence against cops. Unfortunately, Jimmy’s subplot feels shoehorned into the movie, rather than organically playing off of Patty’s refusal to leave the past behind.

The homecoming is anything but peaceful for Marcus. His father has died, his Muslim brother has thrown him out of the house and the remaining Panther members believe he snitched them out. Though the threat of violence burbles throughout the film, Hamilton isn’t concerned with letting Marcus have a tender homecoming. Instead, she is interested in exposing the unhealed flesh and discord that still remains in the community.

Although Night Catches Us feels scattershot, Hamilton peppers the movie with some indelible moments. After a character is shot, she lets her camera rest on clumps of freshly mowed grass, fireflies incandescent specks floating above. When Marcus and Patty finally give into their repressed passion, Hamilton frames their frantic lovemaking in shadows, as if the union is doomed from the start.

Hamilton also blends archival footage and sounds throughout the film. We hear Jimmy Carter promise the dawning of a new America and see footage of Panther funerals. Hamilton is not deifying the Panthers, but rather showing us the fallout of the movement’s implosion. However, intent is one thing and execution is another. Most characters aren’t given enough screen time to truly come to life and its end Night Catches Us plays more like an exercise than a full-blooded movie. Mackie is especially strong as the noble Marcus, but I didn’t believe Washington adequately filled the role of Patty. She just didn’t come across as haunted enough. Rather than show a vibrant community where each character is an important piece of the mosaic, it’s hard to care when tragedy finally does strike the characters in Night Catches Us. We understand the message, but in such a slight film, we hardly get time enough to feel it.

by David Harris