← Back to Reviews
in
The Night Clerk, 2020
Bart (Tye Sheridan) is a night clerk at a hotel, where he uses hidden cameras to spy on the people who stay there. Bart has autism, and ostensibly he is using his recordings to gain insight into the way that people interact. But Bart becomes fascinated by a woman (Jacque Gray) staying overnight, and is distraught when he witnesses her murder. Unable to admit to his voyeurism, Bart becomes enmeshed in the investigation. Worse, he is drawn to an enigmatic woman named Andrea (Ana de Armas) who may be connected to the killing.
Obnoxiously plotted and centered on a lazy, offensive portrayal of autism, this thriller frustrates far more often than it generates any decent suspense.
I’m not going to pretend that I don’t understand why people writing movies or TV shows are drawn to characters with autism. People who do not respond in a typical manner to situations or who don’t always understand social cues are easy fodder for jokes. Then there’s the bonus of giving such characters basically any super-power they want under the cultural notion that people with autism are just randomly geniuses at whatever skill they apply themselves to. It’s to be expected that writers will take some liberties, fine, whatever.
But this portrayal is . . . oof. Sheridan is trying, I guess. He gives a pretty generic robotic portrayal of someone on the autism spectrum. But the writing of the character is mind-bogglingly bad. In one standout sequence, Bart begins to describe the hotel’s room using language taken verbatim from the hotel’s website. Partway through the spiel, he says, “Click to read more.” I’m sorry, but no. People with autism who are functional at Bart’s level---able to hold down a job with no direct supervision---might have aspects of OCD and difficulty decoding social cues, but they are not mindless robots.
Then there’s the fact that we’re meant to root for Bart seemingly just because he is neurodivergent. It totally falls flat for me on two fronts. The first is that he’s simply terribly developed as a character. He’s defined only in the terms of his autism. People with autism have personalities, interests, and their own sense of humor. Bart lacks these things almost completely. But the other problem is that Bart is a creep. He violates the privacy of the people who stay in the hotel. The movie carefully curates what we see of Bart’s viewing habits, but just speaking in practical terms: he has definitely filmed minors in states of undress, right? It’s so off-putting, and the excuse that he’s doing “research” into how to talk like a “normal” person doesn’t hold up to even the slightest scrutiny. With his apparently expert spying skills, Bart could surveil a coffee shop, a restaurant, or any other location where people have personal conversations but aren’t, you know, naked.
Then there’s the “mystery” itself, which is absolutely abysmal. John Leguizamo is stuck in the thankless role of the police detective trying to solve the case. This character is so stupid--at one point he gives away a ton of information to someone who should be suspect number one---that for much of the film I thought we were meant to understand that he was corrupt and deliberately trying to sabotage the investigation. From what we see in the film, the killer would have left behind a lot of physical evidence, and so the fact that it’s being investigated for so long makes zero sense.
In fact, all of the characters in this film are just bad versions of tropes. De Armas tries valiantly in her role, which is a strange mix of femme fatale and damsel in distress. Helen Hunt is saddled with a shrill, shallow role as Bart’s mother.
This is a bad movie, and watching it made me grumpy. It looks okay, I like the cast, but the writing is terrible and enamored with an outdated, offensive portrayal of autism.
The Night Clerk, 2020
Bart (Tye Sheridan) is a night clerk at a hotel, where he uses hidden cameras to spy on the people who stay there. Bart has autism, and ostensibly he is using his recordings to gain insight into the way that people interact. But Bart becomes fascinated by a woman (Jacque Gray) staying overnight, and is distraught when he witnesses her murder. Unable to admit to his voyeurism, Bart becomes enmeshed in the investigation. Worse, he is drawn to an enigmatic woman named Andrea (Ana de Armas) who may be connected to the killing.
Obnoxiously plotted and centered on a lazy, offensive portrayal of autism, this thriller frustrates far more often than it generates any decent suspense.
I’m not going to pretend that I don’t understand why people writing movies or TV shows are drawn to characters with autism. People who do not respond in a typical manner to situations or who don’t always understand social cues are easy fodder for jokes. Then there’s the bonus of giving such characters basically any super-power they want under the cultural notion that people with autism are just randomly geniuses at whatever skill they apply themselves to. It’s to be expected that writers will take some liberties, fine, whatever.
But this portrayal is . . . oof. Sheridan is trying, I guess. He gives a pretty generic robotic portrayal of someone on the autism spectrum. But the writing of the character is mind-bogglingly bad. In one standout sequence, Bart begins to describe the hotel’s room using language taken verbatim from the hotel’s website. Partway through the spiel, he says, “Click to read more.” I’m sorry, but no. People with autism who are functional at Bart’s level---able to hold down a job with no direct supervision---might have aspects of OCD and difficulty decoding social cues, but they are not mindless robots.
Then there’s the fact that we’re meant to root for Bart seemingly just because he is neurodivergent. It totally falls flat for me on two fronts. The first is that he’s simply terribly developed as a character. He’s defined only in the terms of his autism. People with autism have personalities, interests, and their own sense of humor. Bart lacks these things almost completely. But the other problem is that Bart is a creep. He violates the privacy of the people who stay in the hotel. The movie carefully curates what we see of Bart’s viewing habits, but just speaking in practical terms: he has definitely filmed minors in states of undress, right? It’s so off-putting, and the excuse that he’s doing “research” into how to talk like a “normal” person doesn’t hold up to even the slightest scrutiny. With his apparently expert spying skills, Bart could surveil a coffee shop, a restaurant, or any other location where people have personal conversations but aren’t, you know, naked.
Then there’s the “mystery” itself, which is absolutely abysmal. John Leguizamo is stuck in the thankless role of the police detective trying to solve the case. This character is so stupid--at one point he gives away a ton of information to someone who should be suspect number one---that for much of the film I thought we were meant to understand that he was corrupt and deliberately trying to sabotage the investigation. From what we see in the film, the killer would have left behind a lot of physical evidence, and so the fact that it’s being investigated for so long makes zero sense.
In fact, all of the characters in this film are just bad versions of tropes. De Armas tries valiantly in her role, which is a strange mix of femme fatale and damsel in distress. Helen Hunt is saddled with a shrill, shallow role as Bart’s mother.
This is a bad movie, and watching it made me grumpy. It looks okay, I like the cast, but the writing is terrible and enamored with an outdated, offensive portrayal of autism.