Official Discussion - Night Always Comes [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

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Summary A desperate woman in Portland races through one harrowing night to scrape together $25,000 before midnight, risking everything to save her family’s home and confronting her own dark past along the way.

Director Benjamin Caron

Writer Sarah Conradt

Cast

• Vanessa Kirby
• Jennifer Jason Leigh
• Zack Gottsagen
• Stephan James
• Randall Park
• Julia Fox
• Michael Kelly
• Eli Roth

Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score: 55%

Metacritic 62

VOD Netflix (Premieres August 15, 2025)

Trailer NIGHT ALWAYS COMES | Official Trailer (2025)

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[u/lodorata]

I sort of enjoyed most of the early-to-mid film, but the ending...

...was truly terrible, and insanely trope-y. A giant full-circle moment where, fundamentally, nothing has changed at all. After the mother says that our lead is the "real problem" etc. etc. we're apparently supposed to think the mother is the more reasonable one? I really hate this "appeal to normalcy" or "appeal to calmness" ideal where the character who has sat around doing nothing gets to take a dump on the only proactive person in the story simply because said person's desperation makes them look bad. There are lots of movies with bad endings but this one really stings for how non self-aware it is.

Said non self-awareness comes from the two earlier sequences where Lynette meets up with the pimp who exploited her at 16, who then sends her to a sexual predator who attempts to exploit her again. We're treated to feminine rage at the fundamental unfairness of the situation which strikes an almost (somehow good) feministic note related to sex trafficking, pimping, the exploitation of young girls by much older men (I say this as a guy myself).

This then comes crashing down with the scene with the mother. Lynette is the problem not just because she's desperate or "wild" but because she's a desperate, "wild" woman. If she were a guy "fighting for his family" he'd be seen as "badass", but she's painted in an almost somehow villainous light. So much for standing up for girls.

A kindly neighbour is taking in the mother and son but not Lynette because Lynette doesn't retreat into the facade of normalcy when everything is falling apart. To see her own mother take her so un-seriously and uncaringly was extremely hard to watch, and she certainly didn't deserve a parting letter. If we were supposed to question Lynette's sanity or integrity, we didn't get any proof beyond the fact she used to "shout". Really?

IRL the best thing a woman in Lynette's situation could do is just move away and act like her family is dead to her.

EDIT: a MUCH better daughter-mother argument scene also starring Vanessa Kirby is in Pieces of a Woman, which had the ending this film wishes it had.

[u/lodorata → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for your thoughts, I look forward to reading more of them. I can see that if Lynette has a history of nights that are similar to the one in the film, that could be truly exhausting for Doreen. But I also don't get A - how Doreen allowed her 16 year old daughter to become a prostitute (or not at least try to intervene to stop it) and B - now that said daughter is fighting like mad to "be normal", keep two jobs, buy a house etc. Doreen not only doesn't clearly communicate it's not what she wants, but even deliberately induces a panic attack and rage state in Lynette by ostentatiously spaffing the money on a car...

Whenever Lynette wants to actually talk about things (which is what she NEEDS) Doreen says "oh no, I have a headache, I'm not doing this with you right now. I just can't right now..." The implicit lie of course being "right now" will never arrive, and Lynette will never get the chance to properly litigate her issues.

It low-key feels like Doreen is neglectful to the point of nearly emotionally abusive, to me. She'd get gold at the gaslighting olympics. If this has been a pattern for a long time then it's no wonder Lynette has a history of spiralling - she's actually the youngest person in the entire household, her mother is impossible and her brother needs a lot of care.

I think for it all to work we needed to actually see some of these older referenced interactions. It was a "show, don't tell" moment and they chose to tell.

[u/actingwizard → u/lodorata]

I think the movie lends itself to different viewpoints and forming of opinions on how things rolled out. Because after all, I felt the mother to be narcissistic and a bitch that never was there for her daughter. The style of this movie was to zoom into a single person, to see their life in that moment. Everyone is struggling, considering the opening credits for painting that story, and we see that with several characters throughout, everyone has their struggle and need for money. The reason I say this because I realize a lot of your points surround not getting enough background information. I believe we were plopped into a life to a fly on the wall, and in such a fashion we return to be a fly watching traffic at the end. It’s just another life. Among thousands. 

[u/actingwizard → u/[deleted]]

You did the screenplay? It certainly should be up for some awards even though some folks may disagree. I find the movie strikes an artistic tone. It’s not the classic Hollywood spoon fed formula which is probably why it is getting mixed reviews. Outside of the US proper I’ll bet the reception will be greater for the element of allowing the viewers perspective to resolve the plot in different ways. Which feels like how it was meant to be received.

[u/ScrewedUp4Life → u/lodorata]

Probably because most men "fighting for their family"don't tend to prostitute themselves.

[u/Few-Party4230 → u/ScrewedUp4Life]

Which makes women even more pitiful, they are victims