The Night Clerk 2020 * * 1/2 Stars

Director: Michael Cristofer
Year: 2020
Rated R
Rating: * * 1/2 Stars
Cast: Tye Sheridan, Helen Hunt, John Leguizamo

"That's a very complicated question". The Night Clerk (my latest review) is not that "complicated" of a movie. I mean not if you rewatch the ending over and over. At a running time of an hour and a half, "Night Clerk" probably could have concluded in say, fifteen minutes. As Sergeant Roger Murtaugh would quip, "pretty thin, huh?"

Anyway, 2020's The Night Clerk contains a capable cast including a weathered Helen Hunt, a weathered Jonathon Schaech, Spielberg and Jeremy Allen White lookalike Tye Sheridan, and the always likable John Leguizamo. The film is about a kooky hotel clerk who gets embroiled in the murder of woman who happens to be staying at said hotel.

Stylistic, Hitchcockian, nocturnal, and of the noir variety, "Night Clerk" contains the most surveillance cameras in it this side of 1993's Sliver. Heck, after seeing this flick you might think twice about checking in to the nearest Red Roof Inn (ha).

Directed by a dude known for winning a Pulitzer Prize (Michael Cristofer), containing quick cut flashbacks, and distributed by Saban Films, The Night Clerk comes off as a voyeuristic persona study for its game lead in Tye Sheridan (he plays a lodge front desk guy named Bart Bromley).

Sheridan's performance is a tad annoying (and frustrating) but he plays the part with total, nuanced discipline. He digs pretty deep and his shtick projects as the type of role Robin Williams would have took on right after appearing in One Hour Photo (you gotta love those weirdo techy people).

All in all, The Night Clerk is slow in spots and at first, feels too tangled for its own good. Take another look at it (like I did) and you might not have to revert back to its quote from the first paragraph of my review ("that's a very complicated question"). Rating: 2 and a half stars.

Written by Jesse Burleson