Midnight Special
Go! Emotional hi-fi sci-fi .
Supernatural boy's unfolding mystery.
What is this? A film about a late-night kebab? A discount offer at a strip club? Or maybe the story about a seven-year-old who drank too much milk before bed? No! None of those things damn it! Midnight Special is director Jeff Nicol’s (Mud) new sci-fi flick, obviously.
Like all mysterious American movies should, it begins in a motel room in Texas. Roy (Michael Shannon, Man of Steel) and Lucas (Joel Edgerton, The Gift) edgily prepare to make their secretive departure across state lines, with the eight-year-old Alton (Jaeden Liebeher, St Vincent) in tow. Over their silence, a television news reporter announces Alton’s abduction, and calls for information to find him. We cut to an FBI raid on a cultish church, where nerves about the boy’s disappearance abound. The FBI’s Agent Miller (Paul Sparks, Boardwalk Empire (TV)) and NSA specialist Paul Sevier (Adam Driver, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) interview members of the cult’s detained congregation, discovering that they all believed Alton to have some kind of supernatural power. As Alton’s estranged birth mother (Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia) resurfaces, the significance of a nearing date and a specific place urgently increase. From there the plot begins to thicken like milky porridge, with starchy mystery cloaking every steady revelation.
Like all mysterious American movies should, it begins in a motel room in Texas. Roy (Michael Shannon, Man of Steel) and Lucas (Joel Edgerton, The Gift) edgily prepare to make their secretive departure across state lines, with the eight-year-old Alton (Jaeden Liebeher, St Vincent) in tow. Over their silence, a television news reporter announces Alton’s abduction, and calls for information to find him. We cut to an FBI raid on a cultish church, where nerves about the boy’s disappearance abound. The FBI’s Agent Miller (Paul Sparks, Boardwalk Empire (TV)) and NSA specialist Paul Sevier (Adam Driver, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) interview members of the cult’s detained congregation, discovering that they all believed Alton to have some kind of supernatural power. As Alton’s estranged birth mother (Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia) resurfaces, the significance of a nearing date and a specific place urgently increase. From there the plot begins to thicken like milky porridge, with starchy mystery cloaking every steady revelation.
To avoid spoilers, that is all I shall tell you about the story. Knowing as little as possible beforehand goes a long way to making Midnight Special gripping, but it is its peculiarity, sensitivity and depth which make it an especially enjoyable and unusual movie.
Strangely, since we started being carpet-bombed with superhero films, the niche of sci-fi (of which most comic book movies are a sub-genre) has become the biggest cinematic draw. While varying from the substantially fantastical to the, “Ooh, it could really happen”, the most captivating examples of the genre will always reveal something about the human condition, accentuated by changing something that we take for granted. We are then challenged by those re-imagined circumstances, raising questions about how we might react compared to the characters on screen. Midnight Special places itself at the less fictional end of the spectrum by altering just one small thing to our current normality – the fact that a little boy is outstandingly abnormal. It makes nods to religious history, aliens and the Superman story in deciphering how people would react – is this kid the Messiah, a threat, a champion; or simply a (very naughty) boy with mad skillz, beloved by his parents? What do people believe, and what are they willing to do in pursuit of that belief?
Strangely, since we started being carpet-bombed with superhero films, the niche of sci-fi (of which most comic book movies are a sub-genre) has become the biggest cinematic draw. While varying from the substantially fantastical to the, “Ooh, it could really happen”, the most captivating examples of the genre will always reveal something about the human condition, accentuated by changing something that we take for granted. We are then challenged by those re-imagined circumstances, raising questions about how we might react compared to the characters on screen. Midnight Special places itself at the less fictional end of the spectrum by altering just one small thing to our current normality – the fact that a little boy is outstandingly abnormal. It makes nods to religious history, aliens and the Superman story in deciphering how people would react – is this kid the Messiah, a threat, a champion; or simply a (very naughty) boy with mad skillz, beloved by his parents? What do people believe, and what are they willing to do in pursuit of that belief?
In posing these questions, Nicol has produced a fascinating film of great emotional weight, with the relationship between Alton and his father at the warm, beating heart of it all. Shannon in particular is outstanding, following his powerful yet fragile character in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire with a similarly measured performance. Edgerton and Dunst are both adept at offering even-handed emotional presence in support of a lead performer, and both do so again here, while Adam Driver adds "restrained yet intense government agent" to his exponentially expansive list of roles, as a reserved but linchpin character that could barely differ more from Star Wars’ Kylo Ren.
Although there is occasionally a feeling of wanting even more from intriguing parts of the unraveling mystery, its focus on the "fi" rather than the "sci" and a much-appreciated respect for the audience that offers as many questions as answers collect to create a tremendously engaging hour and fifty minutes. The quality and style of the film allow an instinctive comparison to Spielberg-caliber sci-fi classics, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., but while Midnight Special takes up the challenge of pursing the same emotional “Emo-Sci-Fi” ideas, Nicol has succeeded in seeing it through his own starker, darker lens.
So go, with as little knowledge as possible and an open, sensitive mind. With equal stature as an emotional family tale or a seductive mystery drama, it stands out as one of the most interesting sci-fis of recent years.
Although there is occasionally a feeling of wanting even more from intriguing parts of the unraveling mystery, its focus on the "fi" rather than the "sci" and a much-appreciated respect for the audience that offers as many questions as answers collect to create a tremendously engaging hour and fifty minutes. The quality and style of the film allow an instinctive comparison to Spielberg-caliber sci-fi classics, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., but while Midnight Special takes up the challenge of pursing the same emotional “Emo-Sci-Fi” ideas, Nicol has succeeded in seeing it through his own starker, darker lens.
So go, with as little knowledge as possible and an open, sensitive mind. With equal stature as an emotional family tale or a seductive mystery drama, it stands out as one of the most interesting sci-fis of recent years.
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