Mark Reviews Movies: THIS IS THE NIGHT (2021)

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 16, 2021

It's May 28, 1982. That's a date that likely won't register with a large majority of people for its historical or cultural import, but it does for the characters of This Is the Night. This is the day that Rocky III is released in theaters for the viewing public.

Does that really matter in the big scheme of life and history? It does for writer/director James DeMonaco, who's clearly conveying something of a personal story with this movie. The protagonist is a teenager in 1982, as the filmmaker would have been at the time. There are likely many more autobiographical details in this screenplay, which follows the very divergent adventures and awakenings of the members of a single Staten Island family on that date in May. Like the significance of the release of a third entry in a blockbuster franchise, though, the importance of those details seems to be left off the screen.

The plot follows the Dedea family, an Italian American clan in the aforementioned New York City borough. Our protagonist is the family's younger son Anthony (Lucius Hoyos), a somewhat socially awkward 16-year-old who, like everyone in the neighborhood, is excited for what he thinks will be the final installment in the story of boxer Rocky Balboa ("It's the end of the trilogy," the kid announces, with amusing dramatic irony).

His father Vincent (Frank Grillo) runs a local banquet hall that's struggling financially. Anthony's mother Marie (Naomi Watts) is so overshadowed by her husband and sons that she doesn't seem to have much a life of her own. It's a bit odd, then, that the entirety of her story ends up revolving around the awakening of the sexual identity of her elder son Christian (Jonah Hauer-King), whose father expects him to become an electrician but who hides wigs, jewelry, and makeup in his room, while secretly flirting with the local mailman.

The movie within the movie, for which Anthony—along with his fellow outcasts and best friends Dov (River Alexander) and Albie (Chase Vacnin)—has been assigned to nab tickets for his family, is obviously just an excuse for these other stories. DeMonaco almost seems a bit too happy to miss his own point here, if the extended scenes of the friends waiting in line (setting up some side players who later enter and exit the story just for additional complications) and the lengthy sequence of an afternoon audience reacting to the unseen and unheard boxing flick are any indication. The filmmaker is so enamored with nostalgia that imagery of a projector bulb bursting to light and film reels running through the track is intercut at random throughout the story.

Anyway, with the movie out of the way and everyone in the neighborhood feeling empowered by Rocky's third outing, Anthony decides to tell Sophia (Madelyn Cline), a girl he has known for years and loved from afar almost as long, how he feels at her 16th birthday party at his father's establishment. Those plans and Anthony's own safety are put in jeopardy when Santo (Steve Lipman), a local bully and Sophia's current boyfriend, insults Rocky in the crowded and says Anthony is the offender. The whole town, it seems, is out to teach Anthony a lesson about denigrating a fictional hero.

That's Anthony's all-night adventure, as he and his pals try to avoid confrontations and make their way to the birthday party. If it means much of anything beyond the constant obstacles and conflicts, that doesn't come across here.

Vincent, meanwhile, has to contend with Frank Larocca (Bobby Cannavale), a long-time friend and local crime boss, who won't lend Vincent money to keep the hall afloat and plans to burn it down for an insurance payout. The two have a beef over Marie choosing Vincent over Frank (She really does get short shrift as a character), which goes from a prank, to a physical confrontation, and to a resolution that must only exist in DeMonaco's mind.

As for Marie and Christian, she tries to get him to embrace his sexuality and love for dressing in women's clothes. There's some tenderness in a few moments of this subplot, although Watts' adoring smiles only take this shallow section, which amounts to an at-home fashion show and a montage at a dance club, so far.

We buy that the boxing movie at heart of This Is the Night means something—and possibly a lot—to DeMonaco. One isn't quite as convinced about the story surrounding that movie.

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