'All Day and a Night' Review: Ashton Sanders towers over Jeffrey Wright in this raw, intimate tale of violence
This article contains spoilers for 'All Day and a Night'
A soft-spoken child follows in the footsteps of his father, only to head on a journey where he yearns for self-discovery hoping to end a cycle of familial violence as his newborn son makes his way into the cruel world.
Jahkor (Ashton Sanders), dreams of a rapping career in the midst of a gang war where inner-city criminals make pawns out of fresh meat. He inevitably falls into the clutches of the wrong side of the tracks and lands in prison beside his father JD (Jeffrey Wright) the one man he never wanted to become. The innocence and the ability to separate right from wrong fade away right in front of him. Joe Robert Cole’s 'All Day and a Night' has a familiar narrative but its raw execution brings the circular tragedy of familial and cyclic violence to its forefront.
We are quickly shown why Jahkor lands up in prison, as a 20-year-old, he executes a man and his wife in front of their daughter, bringing us the audience into quick retaliation mode as Jah (his nickname) narrates, 'Everybody on the outside looks in pretending as they would do better, or worse.'
As Jah reflects on the days that got him behind bars, we are shown the empathetic and cruel montage of a child as he grows up with a reality of the least possible viable options to stray away from the bad and stick to the good. The brutality of the chronicled life of this young man speaks volumes to a very real struggle of many, although its pull for compassion seemed to be its strongest suit. The comprehension of Jahkor's character was well portrayed, putting the blame on a problem that is ravaging the current lives of many gang members and their families.
The decades worth of flashbacks, the corrupt violence, the somber inability to pick up responsibility from lack of parental guidance - we've seen this production before, this narrative has been told in much more viable portrayals such as 'Boyz n the Hood' or ' Fruitvale Station' - so it wouldn't be fair to say this is a new narrative based on a new premise. The performance of the actors may be the highlight of the movie, but there was no unique or new angle to the storyline making it a repetitive flick, for lack of better words. The premise of the film seems to be to emphasize with a character that was built a life before he was born, to bring humanity and a voice to those behind bars, and to comprehend how the nature vs. nurture aspect played a role in them committing horrific crimes. We are asked, almost indirectly, if this is an excuse? Have the crimes of Jahkor's father purposefully led him to a life with only one option - iron bars? There are many grey areas that would include a lot of opinions based on many stories but this one here is one of a young man in prison as he reflects on a life that got him there. Jah's endearing voice-over doesn't offer excuses rather pins a community for lack of nurture where options are obvious but choices are heavily limited.
This movie, a directional debut of Cole, who co-wrote 'Black Panther', was a brilliant way to showcase Ashton Sanders's capability of morphing into a character that brings the reality of many individuals to life. Sanders's tender delivery should be the reason that you watch 'All Day and a Night.'
How does one stray away from a life of violence and drug addiction, when that's all one is not only surrounded by but was brought up to continue? It's an incessant tale of familial expectations of continuing a harsh legacy, with no one willing to break the cyclic thread of bloodshed.
Wright's delivery of being an abusive father is ferocious, to say the least, as he sets his son up for a life of perpetuated gang violence. However, we think that his character could have used more depth instead of showcasing characteristics of cliched gangsters that have been portrayed in multiple productions before this one.
Wright is a brilliant actor, well suited for the role, but the character could have been written to bring in a gangster who isn't a cliched drug-dealing, family-abusing mess.
Nonetheless, Sanders and Wright's chemistry lifts story far above the source material.
'All Day and a Night' is now available to stream on Netflix.