4/5 stars

An inner-city high school becomes the testing ground for an intrusive new security system in Happyend, the debut feature from Japanese-American filmmaker Neo Sora.

Through the prism of this institution, the film observes the strengthening grip of an authoritarian regime as anxiety builds over an impending earthquake and widespread malaise among the adolescent community is quashed with an iron fist.

Students Yuta (Hayato Kurihara) and Kou (Yukito Hidaka) are best friends and founders of the school music club. When caught sneaking into a nightclub, Yuta is let off with a slapped wrist, but as Kou is Korean, the police immediately give him grief, even questioning the legitimacy of his Japanese residency.

When the boys pull an elaborate prank on their corrupt principal (Shiro Sano), upending his luxury sports car in the school courtyard, the faculty fights back by installing state-of-the-art surveillance cameras around campus.

For Kou, this is the final straw. Sick of being incessantly discriminated against, he falls in with Fumi (Kilala Inori), a girl with ties to an activist group, and over time, he steadily becomes radicalised.

Brave the Dark, 2025.

Directed by Damian Harris.
Starring Jared Harris, Nicholas Hamilton, Jamie Harris, Sasha Bhasin, Will Price, Daisy Galvis and Joey Cabrera.

SYNOPSIS:

Haunted by torturous childhood memories, Nate Williams finds himself engulfed in darkness. When his drama teacher, Mr. Deen bails him out of jail and takes him in, Nate must confront his past before it leads to his own destruction.

Based on true events, director Damian Harris’ Brave the Dark follows homeless high school senior Nathan Williams (a leather jacket-sporting bad boy played by Nicholas Hamilton), troubled but kind and caught up in a rebellious crowd, also becoming the only one of that group to be punished for stealing from a home appliances store. Following a rather humiliating arrest at school (an effort to make an example out of his misdeeds), his girlfriend Tina (Sasha Bhasin) decides to step away from the relationship while most of the school faculty deem him a lost cause, relieved that they no longer have to deal with a student they attribute as disrespectful and lazy.

One particularly empathetic teacher isn’t ready to give up, as drama instructor Stan Deen (Jared Harris) steps in to not only try and get Nathan back on a more productive life path but to save him from serving time. Naturally, posting his bail turns out to be difficult, and the situation turns out to be much more dire than he ever imagined once he discovers that Nathan has been living in his car instead of a foster home. Nathan is also momentarily reunited with his strict, hard-edged grandparents, who are more concerned with making him work while also perceiving him as more of a burden than anything. The grandfather especially has a startling lack of empathy regarding some trauma that happened to Nathan’s mother, who died when he was six, cruelly stating that she made mistakes in life and got what was coming to her.

These grandparents clearly aren’t the proper guardians to assist Nathan with his current predicament and personal demons, so the well-meaning Stan goes through the trouble of getting authorization for the boy to live with him while helping turn his life around. It also made clear that Stan is already lonely, having lost his mom roughly a year ago, now living alone. This is not about one man’s loneliness, though, as he is a teacher who genuinely perceives his job as going beyond the classroom, subscribing to the notion that no child is hopeless.

As such, Brave the Dark works when it’s allowing Nicholas Hamilton and Jared Harris to talk, as each character slowly lets their guard down. Understandably, Nathan becomes confused about why Stan is going to such extremes to help change his life for the better, giving the expected problem of child resistance. The two often butt heads with Nicholas Hamilton convincingly portraying these conflicted emotions. Meanwhile, Jared Harris is terrific as a kindhearted soul, occasionally with an amusing dry sense of humor. Whenever they are interacting with one another, the film feels grounded and human.

However, and this could be a result of not only multiple screenwriters in Lynn Robertson Hay, Dale G. Bradley, and Damian Harris but also the fact that this is a script rewritten from the works of the actual Nathan and John P. Spencer, Brave the Dark also has several unnecessary melodramatic flourishes. It starts with flashbacks hinting that there is more to the death of Nathan’s mom than a supposed car accident (offering glimpses of an abusive partner.) Then it continues with Nathan gradually taking on the persona of that father when Tina regularly reaffirms that she doesn’t want to talk to him anymore. It’s a situation that only escalates when she quickly starts dating a boy Nathan already doesn’t like without any justifiable reason for doing so. 

There are solid thematic ideas and juxtapositions here, but the execution is noticeably weaker and forced compared to the drama that generally feels real and moving from letting Nicholas Hamilton and Jared Harris act. One wonders if the mystery element regarding what really happened to Nathan’s mom fits in this narrative simply because it consistently hurts the storytelling structure. A more restrained approach to that plot element might have been wiser (there are certainly some flashbacks that don’t need to be here) and further elevated some of the revelatory moments and closing speeches.

However, as a film about compassionate teachers going above and beyond whilst showing the impact they can have on a student’s life for the better, alongside an otherwise inspirational and compelling story for Nathan, it’s easy to brave the dark in Brave the Dark. It has flaws but is well-meaning, sincere, and potentially even crucial, considering teachers today are grossly undervalued.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist

If you pair Keke Palmer up with someone, they’d better be on her level or at least round out her energy. SZA does both as Alyssa, who is one of those people who prefers to let the universe resolve her problems rather than handle them herself. She rounds out Palmer’s Dreux who bears some insecurity and awkwardness with loving enthusiasm. SZA shows impressive comedic range throughout. I was mainly impressed by how she depicted patience with Keshawn, and we all know if SZA were controlling the pen, she would certainly go “Kill Bill” on him. Either way, one can sense the childhood history of these characters through their affectionate banter and interactions. Like every Issa Rae production, their friendship and the tests they go through are the film’s core. The co-leads’ radiant energy is enough to justify the price of admission alone. 

One of Them Days is a Millennial Friday But For the Girlies

One of Them Days is like a spiritual successor to Friday but to represent the Millennials. Much of its plotting takes from the F. Gary Gray classic. It captures the same breezy, laid-back style and flavor, even down to Dreux and Alyssa having their own Deebo in Berniece. As Friday was a love letter to Compton, One of Them Days is a love letter to Crenshaw. 

One of Them Days is brimming with hilarious visual gags and the plotting unfolds in a series of vignettes but none that feel too long-winded or disrupt the runtime. Janelle James, Katt Williams, and Keyla Monterroso Mejia portray various amusing side characters that the duo encounters throughout the day, and they all contribute to a lighthearted tone with their over-the-top personalities. My favorite was Williams as Lucky, a homeless man who constantly tries to steer the duo in the right direction, but they never “take heed” from him.