The Midnighters

“The Midnighters” by writer/ director/ producer Julian Fort and producer Adam Carl is as cool as the title suggest. It follows recently released safecracker Victor (Leon Russom) who has been in prison serving a 35 year sentence. When Victor is released he finds it difficult to re-establish himself into society. At first he visits an old friend who was suppose to be guarding a large sum of stolen money for him but when that situation turns south Victor is left with empty hands but a lot on his plate. Victor applies for a few jobs but we mostly observe him in his leisure time and talking with his old acquaintance, Chester (John Wesley).

The tempo of the film is a crawl through essential informative backstory and character setup. An unclear depiction of Victor’s past with a woman who we later discover more about is first presented but not quite necessary to the heist aspect. It is merely more development on why Victor might be as depressed as a 35 year old inmate should be. Victor is trying to lead his second life after prison when out of the blue his son Danny (Gregory Sims) reaches out to him. Danny’s motive is fairly obvious as to why he is reconnecting with Victor but the story draws out this recruitment.

Danny is a highly trained tech savvy infiltrator who is in desperate need of the criminal expertise his estranged father has the capability of providing. Victor and Danny share philosophical exchanges in the few conversations they have before the heist is undertaken. Danny has an outlook on life that is wild and definitely reckless in comparison to Victor who understands the value of his freedom. Yet Danny has cold hard facts behind his beliefs and easily defies his father with an ideology along the lines of if you have a skill you excel at, you should be using it to every advantage, criminal or otherwise.

When Victor first meets his son he describes his initiation into the crime world of breaking into safes and vaults but he appears completely aware of the blinding truth that he is behind in the times to be of any use to Danny. The past that Victor has paid for with 35 years of his life is the barrier that is logically blocking him from outright assisting Danny. Yet in classic crime noir style Danny is able to convince Victor into a partnership in the robbery. The reasoning however is justifiable for Victor as to why he would possibly risk his newfound freedom. The tension is palpable and causes a severe amount of reflection for Victor that takes place mostly off screen.

Once we get to the vault scene unfortunately the film is nearly complete. The entire heist goes by so quick that after the film ends you register that it isn’t even really about the robbery and actually more about the robbers. The majority of the film is spent in explaining Victor’s backstory with his reason for leaving Danny in his youth, aside from incarceration and the repercussions of a 35 year prison sentence may have on an aged man. The ending, as well as the entirety of the film, is graced with superb performances from Leon Russom (Victor) and Gregory Sims (Danny). The intelligence behind the heist conduction is miniscule yet relevantly intriguing. Filmmaking savant Julian Fort has created “The Midnighters” as a modern unbreakable representation of the classic crime film noir that is deeply rooted with cleverness and audience deception that cannot be overlooked.

Saw the 13th June 2017