This chewy, macabre, deliciously odd feature from British director Karan Kandhari is quite the palate cleanser. A UK-financed, India-set comedy that’s as sticky and dark as congealed blood, Sister Midnight is a bold, defiantly feral and immensely entertaining portrait of a newlywed bride who finds herself singularly ill-suited to her arranged marriage. The central character, Uma, is brought to angular, abrasive life by a sublime turn from Radhika Apte, a star in mainstream Bollywood cinema who co-starred with Dev Patel in Michael Winterbottom’s The Wedding Guest (2018).
Sister Midnight is a movie with a big personality; film-making that doesn’t just break the rules, it seems blissfully oblivious to the fact that there even are any. I have no idea how it got through the meat-grinder, low-budget production process that generally seems designed to smooth down the edges and remove any interesting gristle from a finished film, but I couldn’t be happier that it did. Not all of the big swings and risks pay off, but there’s not a moment here that feels safe or creatively compromised. Every deranged frame is to be cherished.
