Day Night Day Night

A stark wisp of a film, 'Day Night Day Night' was a last second addition to my festival-going experience, on this the last day of the festival. Each year I try to attend something I know very little about and this entry in the Visions program of the festival sparked my interest by its air of mystery: a story that for the first half of the film follows an unspecified woman spending what appears to be her last night on earth in a hotel room, followed by a tension-building second day on the streets of New York. The less you know about the story the better the experience. The actress who plays the central character, on screen every moment of the film, is mesmerizing as the somewhat clumsy yet fanatic young woman at a precarious crossroad in her life; much of the film is comprised of extreme close-ups of her face, the flaring nostrils and heavy breathing alerting us to the dark thoughts running through her mind. The audience is given very little back story of what brought her to this hotel room awaiting her fate, and the ambiguity pays off in the second half preventing the thrust of her mission from going down a well-trod path. This film could have easily stopped at a couple different junctures and been less successful as result, however the director keeps the story moving towards a surprisingly heart-wrenching moment that validates its whole purpose.

Grade: 8/10