Netflix’s All Day and a Night – A Solid Yet Unmoving Character Study

All Day and a Night starts of strong enough: Jahkor Lincoln (Sanders) breaks into a house and kills a couple in front of their daughter. It’s a chilling moment, very well executed by writer/director Joe Robert Cole, that portrays the unmerciful personality of the film’s protagonist. From that point on, the narrative jumps back and forth, going from the past, to the present, and the future. Starting with Jahkor and his relationship with his abusive father James (Jeffrey Wright), the story then shifts from the moment he steps into a life of crime to after the killing and finally when he goes to jail and toughens up even more.

As All Day and a Night shows viewers different moments of the Jahkor’s life, it provides a window into a soul crushed by circumstance , to a point where it can no longer find its path to redemption. Years of abuse, neglect and bad examples set Jahkor into such a destructive behavior even those who love him most cannot deal with him anymore. The film is a disturbing look into one soul’s becoming increasingly more violent and remorseful, totally losing touch with his own humanity. It’s even more impactful because we can totally see it as a true possibility; we know this behavior can appear, easier than it should, in our youth. The symptoms are all around us.

The film has also an interesting duality between Jahkor and his father; in the flashbacks, James is shown as violent and frightening, when Jahkor is still a kid. But in prison, the father become a more calming presence, and interesting interactor with his child. Wright brings the right intensity to the character and turns him into a full fledge person. However, the standout, though, is Sanders as Jahkor. He’s very good as Jakhor evolves as a character, but the moments when he’s truly menacing and lost are the best. He doesn’t play these scenes for empathy, on the contrary; he truly portrays a lost soul, and empty vessel, and we don’t see any type of humanity left , and realizing this kid has lost any sense of understanding and empathy is truly frightening.

But despite any positives the film may have, All Day and a Night never truly rises to something stronger than it could have been. Maybe it’s the tired premise , how many films about lost kids getting entangled in a life of crime have we watched before? It never loses us as an audience, but it also doesn’t bring anything new to the table, which is sad. It’s a wasted opportunity.

In the end, All Day and a Night is an interesting yet not all that imaginative crime movie.

*still courtesy of Netflix*

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