| 8:10 p.m. | To Sleep with Anger Charles Burnett (U.S., 1990) |
To Sleep with Anger is a domestic comedy-drama with the depth and force of myth. At the heart of the story are emigrants from the South to South Central L.A., hardworking Gideon (Paul Butler) and Suzie (Mary Alice), and their two sons: dutiful Junior (Carl Lumbly) and conflicted Babe Brother (Richard Brooks), whose dreams of upward mobility have brought him only bitterness. Into this circle of mundane comforts and frustrations walks Harry (Danny Glover), an old acquaintance from down home, who makes himself a pallet on the floor. Harry's old-fashioned ways are seductive, invoking a nostalgia for times that might better be forgotten, and his strangely transfixing influence leads the family to a dangerous crossroads. Burnett suggests a world where the everyday is infused with mystery, where tradition can be both sustaining and destructive, and where the trickster wields the power of folklore but is finally only a man.
—Juliet Clark
• Written by Burnett. Photographed by Walt Lloyd. With Danny Glover, Paul Butler, Mary Alice, Carl Lumbly. (102 mins, Color, 35mm, From MGM Distribution Company)
