BRAVE THE DARK REVIEW
“A decent if unrevelatory drama that should grow on you as you’re pulled into Nate’s story”
Angel Studios continues to pick up and distribute many interesting movies, although biopics and movies based on real-life events seem to have become their forté. In this case, Brave the Dark is a movie that played at a few smaller regional festivals back in 2023, which the distributor clearly thought well enough to want to pick it up for a wide release.
Nicholas Hamilton (It) plays Nathan Williams, a suburban Pennsylvania high school track star, a charming teen who has a regular girlfriend in Tina (Sasha Bashim), but who also holds a secret that he’s been living in his car rather than staying with his foster parents. You see, Nate is an orphan, having lost both his parents in a traumatic incident, which has sent him on a dark spiraling path that leads him to helping friends rob an electronics store. He gets arrested for his involvement but won’t give up the fellow students who egged him to help with the crime. Seeing potential in the lad, Nate gets help from the high school drama teacher, Stan Deen, played by Jared Harris, who takes him in hoping that he can make a difference.
Directed by Damian Harris – who helmed a terrific drama called Gardens of the Night back in 2008 – this is indeed based on the true story of Nate Williams (who was involved in the film’s screenplay). As far as I can remember, the movie doesn’t hit the viewer over the head with the usual “based on a true story” title card. Instead, we’re introduced to Nate as he’s running around the track, and we’re introduced to some of the main characters in the set-up for Nate getting arrested for his involvement in the aforementioned robbery.
Unfortunately, Hamilton is the film’s weakest link, really not being able to handle the more dramatic scenes on his own, and he does infinitely better when he’s paired with Harris, because the movie is more about the bond between teacher and student. We do get a few flashback to find out exactly what happened to Nate to leave him in such a sorry state where he’d allow himself to be dragged into juvenile crimes, but Deen tries to get him more involved with the theater. Nate doesn’t mind since that allows him to get closer with Tina, who isn’t allowed to go near Nate after his arrest.
Harris is a decent director, and one can’t even fault him for bringing on his brother Jared (as well as another brother named Jamie, playing Nate’s parole officer), making this somewhat of a family affair. The material and story isn’t as strong as Gardens, but everyone involved seems dedicated to pulling viewers into the relationship between Nate and his teacher.
There may be a misconception that Angel Studios’ releases are all about religion or faith, but there’s really none of that in Brave the Dark, compared to other faith-based films that always find a way to shoehorn God and religion into every true-life story. Not that it would bother me if Deen did introduce religion into Nate’s life to try to help him, but that doesn’t happen, and the closest thing we get is Nate kindly bringing Christmas presents to the kids at the orphanage where he used to reside.
Brave the Dark offers a good message about the importance of kind and good-natured teachers and how they can help their students. Despite its problems, it’s a decent if unrevelatory drama that should grow on you as you’re pulled into Nate’s story.
Rating: 7/10
Brave the Dark opens nationwide on Friday, January 24