The derivative way All Day and a Night handles the school-to-prison pipeline and crack epidemic does nothing to add nuance or newness to our understanding of these realities.

A nervy, deeply felt drama that gets a little lost on its winding path to redemption but still finds a way home.

"All Day and a Night" lingers and sometimes meanders in that gray zone, where the story can accrue texture and feeling and emerge as more than the sum of its plot mechanics.

The story is a little too monotonous and it really does go in circles. Sometimes, it feels as if you started listening to the same track over, and over, and over again.