Dark Night
| Release Date: February 3, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
9
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezJan 27, 2016
Immersive and committed to its austere form, the solemn, often-dialogue free Dark Night never spoon feeds and always allows the viewer to draw their own conclusions. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnJan 27, 2016
At every turn, the movie casts a haunting spell. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattFeb 3, 2017
It’s also a haunting, thought-provoking piece of work, made infinitely more powerful by all the things it chooses not to show. Read full review
83
The Film StageDan MeccaJan 27, 2016
Every grunt, groan, and eye-roll feels genuine and relatable. Read full review
80
The GuardianPhil HoadAug 24, 2017
Occasionally too emblematic as individuals, the characters collectively mesh into a portrait of a dislocated society elevated by Sutton’s talent for disorienting imagery. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangFeb 8, 2017
Sutton’s vision is unsettling and immersive, his technical precision immaculate. The sound design alone — long, ambient silences disrupted by a flashbulb-popping hallucination or a sudden scream — is reason enough to see the movie in a theater, whatever unpleasant associations the ending may conjure. Read full review
80
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlFeb 2, 2017
Sutton makes the concrete oblique, even mysterious. Read full review
80
Screen DailyDavid D'ArcyJan 27, 2016
Dark Night is a drama of grim inevitability. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Feb 1, 2017
Dark Night isn’t really a polemic. It’s a mysterious elegy for a community on the verge of a nightmarish crucible. Read full review
75
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerJan 29, 2016
There are moments of true terror to be found among the silence and the encroaching existential dread in which the film deals most prominently. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 27, 2016
With a title easily confused for Christopher Nolan’s 2012 Batman sequel...Tim Sutton’s Dark Night is at once a glib play on words and a sobering rumination on the mindset of a suburban America simultaneously obsessed with and plagued by gun violence. Read full review
60
EmpireKim NewmanAug 14, 2017
A worthy — if chilly and difficult — addition to the sadly extensive filmography of American mass murder. The soundtrack from Canadian singer-songwriter Maica Armata adds some much-needed heart. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 23, 2017
To its credit, Dark Night does not exploit or glamorize the gun culture, nor does it attempt to hammer us over the head with social or political views. Sutton is undeniably talented. Better, deeper, richer work is almost sure to follow. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredDavid JamesFeb 3, 2017
Dark Night is rigorously framed and edited, but it offers the illusion of complexity rather than the real McCoy. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineCarson LundJan 28, 2017
Tim Sutton's film often surprises on the micro level, but its broader execution gives reason for pause. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenJan 27, 2016
At its strongest, Dark Night taps into the emptiness, hurt and longing beneath the pings and swipes of our "connected" world. But for all its artfulness, the film doesn’t shed light so much as push buttons. Read full review
40
CineVueJohn BleasdaleAug 24, 2017
In its determined avoidance of sensationalism, it finds itself stranded in an empty space so understated, it is genuinely difficult to understand what, if anything, it is saying. Read full review
40
Total FilmSimon KinnearAug 15, 2017
This portrait of an alienated culture funnelling its rage into gun violence is itself too cold and distant to connect. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJan 30, 2017
Under its compelling influence, we are lured into feeling that these various lives, marked by vacuity and frustration, are in some way destined to end at the point of a gun — that the murderer and his victims coexist on a continuum of despair. Try telling that to the people of Aurora. Read full review
40
The GuardianJordan HoffmanJan 27, 2016
The noble intention to make us dwell on our culture, and perhaps shame its more voyeuristic members, quickly devolves into a cavalcade of tedium. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzFeb 3, 2017
I've seen this film twice and I'm just not convinced it's all that interested in the subjects it claims to be interested in. And that's a deal-breaker of a problem. Read full review
30
The New York TimesGlenn KennyFeb 2, 2017
Until its climax, which clearly seeks to be congratulated on its restraint, Dark Night is not much more than an arty bore. Read full review
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