Nighthawks Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

Nighthawks Blu-ray Movie Review

Where are Sylvester Stallone and Rutger Hauer when you really need them?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 20, 2020

Note: It's difficult to provide a complete plot synopsis of Nighthawks without mentioning a few tidbits that some might consider spoiler material. For anyone so concerned, it's probably best to skip down to the technical portions of the review, below.

Was Grant S. Johnson a victim of hazing? This young filmmaker only has two feature films to his credit, but both Frat Star and this film feature somewhat jaundiced views of certain activities promulgated by denizens of Greek Row. Johnson widens his caustic purview somewhat in Nighthawks, supposedly (in his own words, based on some interviews with Johnson I unearthed in doing some background research for this review) taking on Millennials as a whole, though that said, Nighthawks seems to be at least two different films kind of churned into one offering. As such, I’m not sure its ostensible “social critique” angle with regard to either fraternities or indeed an entire generation ever really resonates, since the underlying subtext of the film ends up being really a more basic personal quest for vengeance.

The film begins with a brief vignette which seems to be some weird kind of initiation, at least as evidenced by the fact that all of the women are wearing the same kind of white dress and there's an insignia with a pyramid with a snake coiled around it, though this turns out later to be a bit of misdirection, and we are indeed watching a "basic" frat party. A woman has obviously been given some kind of "date rape" drug, and a guy chaperones her upstairs, obviously to an uncertain (or maybe put in another way, a certain) fate. But that vignette is almost immediately suggested to perhaps be the work of aspiring writer Stan (Chace Crawford), a hayseed from middle America who is rooming with Manhattanite Chad (Kevin Zegers). Chad is a "player", or at least fancies himself so, and he wastes no time in teasing Stan not just for his name, but for his unwillingness to get out there and party hearty in a "hook up" culture dominated by apps like Tinder. Suffice it to say that Chad's nagging does get Stan to agree to come out for a night of revelry, ostensibly to act as Chad's so-called "wingman". Not to state the obvious, but something else is actually going on.

The story initially does seem to at least hint at the self-absorbed qualities of some (many? most?) Millennials, as Chad and Stan go club hopping. But once Stan is given copious amounts of absinthe and some other “ingestibles”, the story goes off on a wild tangent that might be cheekily described as part Eyes Wide Shut and part Death Wish. The whole middle part of this film also seems to willfully suggest that writer Stan is actually concocting a story featuring the people he’s supposedly interacting with (are they hallucinations?), kind of like the flip side of Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author. It’s all very odd, and borderline incomprehensible if explored with any amount of logic. This whole middle section also spends inordinate amounts of time in what is kind of a quasi-flashback detailing the history of the characters, the formation of their supposedly "elite social group", the Nighthawks, and at least hints of what has brought them to their current state of affairs.

The bottom line is that the group that Stan is accosted by is the coterie known as the Nighthawks, and they are actually on a quest for vengeance that relates to that first vignette. That seems like an almost pedestrian letdown after a whirlwind setup that almost hints at a kind of genre bashing metaphysical quality. Once the “real” plot is revealed, the film just tips over into complete absurdity, with long, florid speeches that even these committed performers can’t really pull off believably. In this regard, I’ll just mention one thing that this film is certainly not the only one to have utilized, but which is flagrantly (and kind of comically) on display here: when someone threatens someone with a gun to the head, and the perceived “victim” has important information to share that the threatener absolutely needs, how likely is it that the trigger is going to be pulled? The kind of hilarious thing about Nighthawks, though, is that the character with the gun, a man rather improbably named Kentavious (Blue Kimble), just keeps pointing it at Stan, his “enemy”, over and over repeatedly, when there's absolutely no real threat possible. Another member of the Nighthawks is a mysterious woman named Marguerite (Janet Montgomery, Salem , New Amsterdam), and Montgomery's appearance may recommend the film to fans of the actress.

Nighthawks might have worked better as a perceived "think piece" with Stan "in charge" of the story, something that might have given things a kind of Matrix like quality, but after a rather well done setup that suggests an almost occult, maybe even pagan, sensibility, the film just becomes surprisingly literal, discarding a lot of the hallucinatory style established early on. It's quite stylishly shot, and the EDM score provides some propulsive energy, but in this particular case some may feel that #metoo has morphed into #whyus?

Nighthawks Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Nighthawks is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FilmRise and MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The closing credits bear the Alexa logo, and I'm assuming things were finished at a 2K DI. This is a very sharp and well detailed looking presentation for the most part, one that manages to segue through a rather wide gamut of lighting and grading choices with fine detail levels largely well intact. A lot of the club material is intentionally hazy, even psychedelic at times, but overall detail levels are good and shadow definition is surprisingly abundant. That said, one minor deficit is a certain murkiness in just a few of the most dimly lit moments. For the most part, the palette pops extremely well, whether in more naturalistic moments or when some of the lighting choices can add almost John Wick levels of purples and teals.

Nighthawks Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Nighthawks features nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 mixes. The film is pretty heavily reliant on some of the thumping club music that can be featured prominently at times, and shunted into the perceived background in others, but which receives a considerable boost in the midrange and low end in the surround rendering. The noisy atmosphere of the party scenes also is well splayed throughout the side and rear channels. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free track.

Nighthawks Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Photo Gallery (1080i) is authored without a timecode, but does advance automatically (and pretty quickly), so have the Pause button on your remote handy if you want to linger on any given image.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:39)

Nighthawks Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

For about the first half hour or so, I was hoping Nighthawks was going to go for one those "meta" structures that is intentionally designed to at least attempt a bit of mind blowing, or at least general trippiness, but kind of weirdly and maybe even inexplicably, the story just turns out to be a no doubt relevant but kind of almost mundane tale of boys behaving badly, and someone out for vengeance as a result. That makes Nighthawks a rather odd mixture of ideas and presentational styles, but fans of the cast might enjoy this, and the film does have a certain style both visually and aurally. Technical merits are solid for those considering a purchase.