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Night Has Settled

Name: Night Has Settled
Director: Steve Clark
Released: 2014
Duration: 90 min

Representation Score

8.4/10

Excellent

2014

Not Rated

Director

Steve Clark

Runtime

90 minutes

Average Rating

No ratings yet

New Showbiz Analysis

Night Has Settled provides a nuanced look at the breakdown of the traditional family unit. By focusing on the emotional weight of the story through a Chilean maternal figure, the film moves away from homogeneous casting to explore multi-layered relationships. The film effectively challenges traditional gender roles. Instead of a typical masculine coming-of-age story, the protagonist is placed in a vulnerable position within a matriarchal environment, emphasizing emotional vulnerability over physical strength. However, the film remains limited by its narrow focus on straight relationships and a lack of explicit LGBTQ+ representation. While it explores psychological trauma and medical crises, these elements are closely tied to the protagonist's personal instability.

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Category Breakdown

Does Night Has Settled have LGBTQ+ representation?

Fair

The film does not include explicit representations of LGBTQ+ identities or same-sex intimacy. The story revolves around the protagonist's developing sexuality within an assumption that everyone is straight or cisgender.

How does Night Has Settled portray gender?

Good

The story challenges traditional gender roles by placing a male protagonist in a female-dominated emotional landscape. The mother acts as a peer-like confidante instead of a traditional caregiver, disrupting conventional maternal archetypes.

How racially and ethnically diverse is Night Has Settled?

Good

The central role of Aida, a Chilean woman, highlights meaningful inclusion. She serves as the primary maternal figure, shifting the emotional core of the household to a non-Anglo-Saxon perspective.

How does Night Has Settled represent religion and culture?

Good

The film critiques Western domestic stability by portraying an untraditional household. Parental roles are detached, and the domestic space is defined by internal trauma.

Does Night Has Settled include disability representation?

Fair

The plot is driven by a medical crisis involving a stroke. While the protagonist faces incomprehensible depression, the narrative's focus on psychological trauma remains central to the character's instability.

Present on Screen

Meaningful ethnic centering through the pivotal role of a Chilean maternal figure.
Effective subversion of traditional gender roles and masculine leadership clichés.
Progressive deconstruction of the Western nuclear family structure.

Limited or Absent

Lack of visible LGBTQ+ identities or non-assuming gender matches what was assigned at birth presence.
Limited exploration of disability beyond using medical crises as plot catalysts.

Official Synopsis

In 1983, Oliver Nicholas, at thirteen, is well-poised to enter the precocious teenage world of first-sex, vodka and possible-love in New York City when he is traumatized by the stroke of his housekeeper (and only true maternal figure), a sixty-five-year-old Chilean woman named Aida. What was supposed to be an exhilarating and somewhat fearful rite of passage - diving into the exciting, fast-paced world of first experiences - quickly becomes skewed by an incomprehensible depression, and a house of interior horrors. Surrounded by women - his untraditional, Spanish, photographer mother (more interested in the role of confidante than mother) his sister, a comedic, door-slamming tormentor, marked by her parent's divorce; and Aida, his silver-haired emotional focal point on the verge of death in Lenox Hill Hospital - Oliver struggles to maintain his role as "man of the house" and his sanity.

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