Before The End of The Night

Paul and Bryan are two petty crook cousins living in Newark, New Jersey a city known in the United States for its crime rates, once referred to the most dangerous city in America by Time Magazine. Our story shows how these two go from a simple bank robbery to a violent murder and the subsequent drift in their already tight relationship. At first glance this classic narrative of one man wanting out of this life of crime and one wanting to dig deeper, Before the End of the Night goes further examining the downward spiral of the main character; Paul. In this film, Paul wakes up deciding to make a change, his drug dealing is behind him and he is going to use he believed earnings from a bank robbery to open a coffee shop. Bryan, his cousin, takes on the responsibility of the robbery, in the mess of getting out of the bank he takes the banker, Michael Lopez, hostage and leaves him in Paul's bathtub while the attention cools down. While the banker stays unconscious in the bathroom Bryan takes his earnings, most of which stolen from Paul's end, and makes a large heroin purchase across town. As Bryan sits in the house waiting for his two kilos to be packaged and money to be counted Paul deals with the banker. While initially hesitant and unaware what to do when he hears a sudden noise, Paul comforts him, ensuring his safety and also finding out there was more money in the vault than he was lead to believe. When Bryan returns to get ready to let the banker go he notices Paul has been in the bathroom since he left. Paul realizes his error and begins to panic, Bryan reacts quickly and kills the banker using a gun Paul placed on the stove. The rest of the afternoon and evening is spent with the cousins chopping the banker up and waiting until the late hours of the night to dispose of the body parts in the Passaic River. At the end, Paul seemingly still ready to leave this life behind him, begins to question who he is now and what kind of world we really live in where a situations like this have no immediate repercussions. Before The End of The Night takes place over the course of one day, with dialogue reflecting who these characters are, what they believe in, and voice overs from the main character structured around the spiral of his thoughts. Unconventional storytelling takes this film further as we have to figure out what has lead to this man's bleak view on the world, not what actions lead to that view.