To Sleep with Anger

Gideon and Suzie live in South Los Angeles. They came from the South and keep up the order they built years ago. They have two sons; one follows his father's way and the other does not, and the two do not get on. One day there is a knock at the door. Harry is an old acquaintance; he has come from the South and wants to stay a few days. The family takes him in. Harry tells stories, is genial and helpful. Then things in the house start going wrong. Gideon falls ill. The brothers fight. Harry does not leave. Charles Burnett writes and directs. Danny Glover plays Harry, Paul Butler plays Gideon and Mary Alice plays Suzie. It is an American production. The film won in several categories at the Independent Spirit awards. It was taken into the National Film Registry. Burnett is placed among a generation of directors formed in Los Angeles, a group that holds a distinct place in Black American cinema. The matter it treats is the past being carried; Harry is a memory arrived from the South and the family cannot turn him from the door. Its form is realist; no supernatural element is plainly shown but the narrative implies one. Blues and gospel work inside the narrative and set the passages between periods. The film did not find wide distribution on release and its standing rose later. Its limit is pace; the narrative is slow, the events few and the ending left open. Who it is for: viewers who like American independent cinema and narratives grounded in family. Who it is not for: it is slow, closed, and the resolution uncertain.