That Night

Long Island, 1961. Ten-year-old Alice worships her sixteen-year-old neighbour Sheryl, the most conspicuous girl on the street. Sheryl's clothes, her walk, her boyfriend are all evidence to Alice of another kind of life. When Sheryl becomes pregnant the neighbourhood turns on her, and Alice, as the only person carrying messages between them, ends up in the middle of it. Craig Bolotin builds the coming-of-age story from two ages at once: for Sheryl it is a consequence, for Alice a lesson. There is the tone of a memory recounted decades later, and the period design supports it. Juliette Lewis plays Sheryl and C. Thomas Howell her boyfriend. A very young Eliza Dushku plays Alice. Who it's for: Viewers who like 1960s stories made in the 1990s, and coming-of-age films built on sisterhood and hero worship. Who it's not for: The telling leans hard on nostalgia and softens its dramatic consequences. The social pressure of the period is handled superficially.