Overall, Sister Midnight swings for the absolute fences which is bold and refreshing to see when it has a cast that supports it, but if the effort ends at the cast’s execution, it can become tiresome and messy. Kandhari throws so much in Sister Midnight, and some of it separately is great, some of it together is great, but all of it together is a disjointed, messy endeavor that gets buried under its own premise and drive to be so stagnantly different than anything the audience has seen previously. It’s a bold take that focuses on dismantling societal norms and enforces that not everyone can fit into the mold that is presented for them, but it loses its messaging through too many genre-bending techniques and having *so* much go on. A little restraint and a stronger narrative focus would’ve helped elevate Sister Midnight from a good concept executed mostly well to what could’ve been a darkly comedic benchmark.
Radhika Apte as Uma in SISTER MIDNIGHT. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing/Magnolia Pictures.
Ironically, this may be a social commentary by Karan Kandhari that arranged marriages lose the identity of the people involved in them, but it’s such a chaotic way of delivering that message that it gets lost along the way. Sister Midnight works much more than it should thanks largely to Radhika and Chhaya, and with some tightened ideas and clearer focus, Kandhari could have an incredibly bright future.
A full review of Sister Midnight will be available closer to the wide release.
Screened during Boston Underground Film Festival 2025.
In theaters May 16th, 2025.
For more information, head either to the official Sister Midnight BUFF webpage or Magnet Releasing webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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