Beyond the Night

Beyond The Night is a solid film with a solid story, good acting, and beautifully shot.

The screenplay boasts a psychological complexity rare for thrillers of this type, manifested most strikingly in the form of Bernard, who is far from a cardboard cutout villain.

Even though the plot gets mired in lapses of logic in the third act, Noto never lets that hang up his movie. It’s a well-cast and very well-acted film.

The best ingredient is the way Ray relates to his son. Those moments – sometimes quiet, but often volatile – lift the film up from being a turgid episode of "Fargo" or "Justified."

The generically titled Beyond the Night spins out a twisty mystery that becomes more engrossing as it unfolds. But writer-director Jason Noto’s drama too often proves a drearily one-note look at small-town crime, corruption and narrow-mindedness.