Take Back the Night
She has built herself up from nothing to a breakout visual artist and influencer with a respectable social media following, celebrating the launch of her first solo exhibition with a party where she feels she can indulge herself, the woman known as JaneDoeDoes proving that she will do anything liquid, chemical or with a pulse, then charitably assist a less fortunate guest to their ride home before finding herself accidentally locked out of her own event and walking the backstreets.
Attacked and beaten by a monstrous assailant exploding out of the darkness which she struggles to describe, Jane is assessed at the hospital and photographs taken of her wounds and bruises and the police detective who interviews her is initially supportive, but as the investigation finds scant evidence and instead highlights significant omissions and inconsistencies in Jane’s account of the night she reacts with anger, determined to prove to herself and the world that she is not the girl who cried wolf, seeking attention to boost her profile.
Take Back the Night directed by Gia Elliot, it stars co-writer Emma Fitzpatrick as Jane, dancing, slamming shots, chugging Bombay Sapphire and popping whatever pills are handed to her, self-care not on her list of priorities and her reaction to anyone who offers her hard truths or genuine help, be it her sister (Angela Gulner) or the detective (Jennifer Lafleur), is a hostility familiar to anyone who has had to fight their whole life to be noticed and taken seriously but which makes it difficult to relate to her as a sympathetic character.
The intention of the film worthy, framing as horror the near impossibility of a victim securing justice in an overworked and underfunded system where even if by some miracle a suspect can be determined and apprehended the accuser will be subject to cross examination as intrusive as those actually on trial, it is undermined by clumsy execution, frequently overlit and shot like a student film from the nineties and with frustratingly poor audio quality.
Jane the only character in the film given a name, what might be intended to express her as an “everywoman” representing all her anonymous voiceless sisters instead comes across as lazy writing; while the checkboxes of representation are ticked (“I’m a black woman in a wheelchair and I’m sympathetic!”) it is equally regressive in its cliches (“Punish the lesbian policewoman!”) and while the ensemble is almost entirely composed of women there are as many opportunists waiting for their chance to twist the knife as there are allies.
Take Back the Night more a plea to return the unwanted rather than an empowering call to arms, Arrow’s Blu-ray by edition contains a commentary with Elliot and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and four visual essays by film critics Emma Westwood, Cerise Howard, B J Colangelo and Justine Smith, Please Don’t Say the Word “Monster” on National Television, Trauma and Space, #MonstersAreReal and What is a Body?
Take Back the Night will be available on Blu-ray from Arrow from Monday 10th October
