“Night Catches Us”: A “Casablanca” for the Black Power era

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 01:30:00 +0000

I'm probably grading on a curve with writer-director Tanya Hamilton's debut feature "Night Catches Us," a low-budget film that took 10 years to get made and was shot in 18 days. Hamilton will no doubt make more polished movies, but this one has unusual atmosphere and emotional depth, and tackles subject matter no mainstream American film would touch without Hazmat equipment.

Set during the hazy, hot bicentennial summer of 1976, "Night Catches Us" uncannily captures the feeling of life in an African-American neighborhood of Philadelphia, where middle-class strivers inhabit elegant old homes around the corner from empty lots and ghetto housing projects. It's a place of hope and hopelessness, of sizzling backyard barbecues and R&B on the radio and constant incipient violence. (One of the first things we hear is ex-Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter, announcing his long-shot presidential campaign.)

Salon.com > Night Catches Us

“Night Catches Us”: A “Casablanca” for the Black Power era