Eat the Night

While the film certainly falls short of generating the deep wells of feeling to which it aspires, primarily through its most genre-standard plot points, its voice is still striking, its characterizations memorable.

The result is at once accosting and strangely affirming, narrowly saved by a strong cast of performers and moody cinematography that navigate the movie’s thinner aspects and more ambiguous moments with relative ease.

What becomes of someone when all their self-improvement is wiped away? Even through a thin plot, “Eat the Night” earns its noir stripes by staring into that abyss.

The young actors are excellent, their bland surroundings coolly captured by Raphaël Vandenbussche’s easygoing camera

There are about three movies in Eat The Night, the overstretched queer gangland romantic thriller by directors Jonathan Vinel and Caroline Poggi... And none of them are particularly good.

An ambitious directorial effort with plenty on its mind and plenty of visual flair, Eat the Night would've benefited more by delving further into fantasy.

The parts of the film, which range from the grittiness of the provincial environment to the vibrant stylization of the game, don't always fit together as well as they should, though the avatars become more realistic with time.

Eat the Night manages to make myself, a video-games-as-art skeptic, into more of a believer of its affecting power.

“Eat the Night” seems to be aiming to be a hybrid of “City of God” and “I Saw the TV Glow,” and while the ambition is admirable, it doesn’t quite have the processing power to keep running smoothly.

An uneven but original French modern Hansel and Gretel story balances a conventional crime drama with a compelling story of a teenage girl finding sanctuary in a video game.