Intriguing to start out, slows down and becomes mundane as it progresses, robs you with the ending.

The Dark Night is an absolute waste of time. The film (if you can even call it that) is full of just empty space. The plot is completely unorganized. Even after finishing it; I still can't determine if this film takes place before, or after the 2012 Colorado Shooting. Dialogue is also practically absent. It took me 3 days to finish watching this, because I couldn't submit myself to watch this any longer than 8 minutes. This whole experience was complete torture. The film sucks, the ending was horrific, and the fact that Rotten Tomatoes rated this film at a %62 is baffling. That score is only %6 short of Joker's score. Did they actually watch this film? Don't listen to these, "movie critics," STAY AWAY FROM THIS FILM.

The visuals in this film are outstanding but the story isn't good. I like the approach that the filmmakers took with this film. Even though the movie lacks a real story it's still very interesting to watch due to the visuals. The visuals make you think a lot. I think this is a very great indie film to watch. Love the artsy, dark mood and tone for this film. I think this film would've been much stronger with more dialogue. It felt much longer than 85 minutes due to the lack of dialgue.

This is a poor man's "Elephant", only without any of the attributes that made that film worthwhile.

How apt i thought, with the inspiring #MarchForOurLives occurring in Washington, to watch this. The director adopted the right approach in not sensationalising the cinema atrocity. It's just after 5-minutes you get it that the characters collectively mesh into a portrait of a dislocated society. You then have to sit through 80-minutes of skateboarding, selfies and PS4 violent games. Gus Van Sant's superb Elephant this is not.

Typical indie style, Never got to the point. Boring.

Cleverness in the title and astonishing cinematography isn't enough to maintain interest in the plodding narrative.

The most boring movie I have seriously ever seen. Learned nothing about the character to help understand motive or finality. I tried to skip through the constant driving around and selfie-taking and get to any interesting parts and there were none. Horrible waste of time. Absolutely horrible.

The makers were so focused on atmosphere and trying to capture the feeling of this event that in the process, forgot to make a good movie.

Tedious and depressive. The cinematography is one suicidal image after another accompanied by endless repetitions of "You are my sunshine" sung by a vocalist recording her last moments of barbiturated consciousness. Truly a stinker.

Tim Suttons Dark Night is an absolute missed opportunity. It's heavy handed, dull and boring without any payoff, and only averagely directed and acted. There's also barely any dialogue, which makes it very hard to care about any of those people by the films unfortunate climax. Anybody that knows the story behind this film, knows it should be treated with sensitivity, and care. Dark Night does neither of those things, only bringing a cold, lifeless, and detached film to the table. Yes that's what the director was going for, but it just doesn't work, or make for compelling viewing.

Only rating one star because it is required to post. The movie moved slow. The characters were flat. We never really get to see just how this event exactly changed these people. All I saw was a cast of people showing the same emotion over again scene after scene.

One of the best movies of the year.

Such a waste of my time and money!!! Waited an hour and a half to watch some badass massacre, but instead I watched random "interviews" that didn't make any sense and then the movie ends right when you think the good part of the movie is going to happen.. I would say it was like if you were really really horny so you went and fucked some random ugly chick just to get off and right when your finally about to climax she hops off and says I'm done good night bye roll credits

Clear and terrific portrait of the modern times madness. A film made of images more than words, as some film should be made.

A hypnotic and leisurely-paced film based on (in fictional form) the Colorado movie theater shootings from several years ago. Not for the impatient: those not familiar w/ the reasons behind this brief film will be lost immediately. There is no discernible story moving in a straight line through here. We are introduced to various characters as they go about their daily lives: young, older, with kids, with parents, outgoing, withdrawn, brooding, carefree, driven. We are not given much information about who these characters are, what they're up to, where they're going to be or represent as the film unfolds. One particular young man (along w/ presumably his Mother) is shown as an interview subject. Why is he being interviewed? Is he a part of something that has already happened or will he be part of something to come? Which I'm sure was the intent of the film-makers: these are just plain, ordinary folks from differing backgrounds. Ex-military, white- and blue-collar, struggling financially, living the good life, preparing for something important, or just relaxing with friends. If memory serves, no-one is even named. Early on we are introduced to an especially withdrawn young man who behaves rather oddly and appears to have come from a broken home (or perhaps he'd worn out his welcome w/ his behavior.) It is this person who does something quite hair-raising during the course of "Dark Night," and will ultimately be responsible for a terrible event which is not depicted. The acting (a non-professional cast) is very natural; it is as if a random group of strangers in close proximity were being filmed w/o their realizing. Images are interspersed between shots of the cast to give us an idea of everyone's surroundings; the ordinary made interesting. I give high marks to the visual style of "Dark Night." Anyone who appreciates the dream-like quality of the story-telling found in Terrance Malick's recent works (i.e. "Tree of Life," "To The Wonder," and "Knight of Cups" will surely watch this w/ some fascination. There is more going on here than an exploration of a gradually growing twisted mind. At it's heart lies a rumination on America's fascination w/ guns, violence, and preoccupation w/ beauty. But there are also the simple wonders: the joy of being together, playing music, holding a child, and appreciating life when it was so close to being taken away. "Dark Night" makes for compelling viewing for those not expecting dots to be connected for them. It is a brief film; I feel it leaves the viewer wanting more information when it's over. It is not a "challenging" film by any means, I doubt it was meant to be. I parallel this w/ Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" as much as any other film; a reality-based fiction documentary filmed like an actual film.

Dark Night is a weird movie because it set itself up as a horror mystery set in 2015 Sarasota, Florida, based on the events of the 2012 Aurora Theater attack. Instead, it's a mostly silent film about ordinary people going about their day doing mundane things in the hours before they all go to the movies. Some of the people do ominously suspicious things that might make you think that by the end of the night, they will commit an unknown atrocity, like the veteran going to a PTSD meeting before going to the gun range, or the loner high school kid hallucinating as he talks to an unknown person with his mother. But for the most part, it's just a visually stunning bore with occasionally slow and drowned out music. I tried to not fall asleep a few times, and something alerts me: whether it's an unnecessarily stupid jump scare that did nothing for the plot or a truly terrifying visual that goes nowhere, my attention would be grabbed. It's a film where nothing happens, which is fine, but there is no execution. There is no great reveal. There isn't even much of a resolution except implication. There are moments where the film tries to clue you about something that could be significant or offer clever easter eggs, which are then revealed to be nothing of actual importance. There are plots that start and go nowhere. Many shots are artfully done, but continue several beats longer than that do, creating a drag on the film. There are elements that don't make logical sense, from the fact that the Aurora attack is - in fact - referenced often, but then more elements play out like the attack itself. And when the perpetrator is revealed, his motives remain unclear. And that's probably the biggest problem with the movie, because there's a brilliant concept in here, the pieces are all here. But there is no execution or point that can be hammered. The film makes statements on mental illness, on veterans, on gun control; things that all come out after a tragedy, but the film says NOTHING on them. This could have been an important film about the gun tragedy in America, but it instead falls so tragically short. There's a pretentiousness to the idea that maybe there is no answer, because the film tried to reveal that anyone could be capable of horror. That's what the characters were supposed to be, just red herrings. Instead, it's the person you most definitely expect, and there's a massive disservice to the fact that he also actually resembles. The ending, unfortunately, just makes this movie lost points because these threads remain untouched and it became a film about nothing, and a gorgeously looking movie that tries to be complex actually comes off as pretentious crap.

Between a 6/10 and 7/10, this isn't a film for everyone. It's incredibly dry. Almost mundane, at times... But these normal people find themselves in almost dreamlike surroundings thanks to Helene Louvart's beautiful cinematography.

Intentions of an artist make for an interesting discussion. However, that's the case when intentions are apparent and provocative. What Dark Night does (or doesn't) do with its content and potential proves to really disappointing. Did you know that victims of mass shootings are normal people just like you and me and that their lives are like ours? Yes, you already knew that. Technically speaking, I'm sure that writer/director Tim Sutton wanted to make, but he couldn't have intended to make a movie that comes off as pointless when it isn't obvious. There's no drama because there's no context, and when an 85-minute movie is so stagnant that you're waiting for a massacre to happen, that's problematic. The movie is set and was shot in Sarasota, Florida follows several unconnected people going about their lives over a lazy summer day. One woman is obsessed with her body and taking selfies, one kid is being interviewed with his mother by someone offscreen for some reason, one woman is an aspiring actor, and a few kids hang out and skateboard and vape. Their lives intersect when they go to see a movie--called Dark Night, I kid you not--where a mass shooting occurs. The movie takes place within our reality; two characters watch CNN coverage of the Aurora shooter and another listens to reports of the July 2015 Lafayette theater shooting that happened at a showing of Trainwreck. This sounds interesting, but it really isn't. It's the pinnacle of nothing really happening and a filmmaker trying to put too much importance on stuff that doesn't really hold weight. The movie premiered at Sundance in 2016 and was in distribution limbo for over a year afterwards so my interest was piqued, especially after I was going to see it at the Chicago Critics Film Festival last May before it randomly got pulled from the lineup. Now that I have finally seen the movie, I feel not much of anything different. It's inevitable to compare the film to Gus Van Sant's Elephant, an amazing with a similar structure that followed in the footsteps and was inspired by Columbine, also being released about years after the tragedy. Dark Night, though, doesn't have characters or a viewpoint to maintain interest and the movie suffers as a result. Despite very good cinematography throughout, there's not much of anything to chew on. It's an 85-minute almost-look at people that we don't get to ever know or care about with a lot of visual references to guns to remind us that they're an insidious part of our culture, but again, this isn't used effectively. References to the Aurora shooting are ham-fisted, such as a man putting on a Batman mask or a character dying his hair orange. Then there's the title of the movie, which I wouldn't have cared about since it isn't canon to the film, but as stated before, that's actually referenced and shown in the movie and it just feels forced. Sutton shows a specific streetlight in the parking lot of the movie theater over and over... I guess because it's a symbol of light shining through darkness in proximity of a tragedy? The movie may be well done visually, but the script is fatally barren when it isn't beating you over the head with allusions to real-life gun violence. Dark Night is really well made but doesn't have anything to say, and that's a shame. American culture, especially that of the 2010s, has had gun violence be a hot debate topic for a lot of people. What is this movie trying to say? That any of these people could be a shooter? That our culture is one where tragedy is always around the corner? That we've become too alienated from one another in the age of social media? Is it supposed to be a reminder that life is beautiful? Because these people onscreen are portrayed with such distance and disinterest that none of this seems to really matter. 5.2/10, mediocre, C, below average, etc.

it wasn't The Dark Knight it was Dark Night...BORED!