Midnight Special

Year: 2016
Genre: Sci-Fi Drama
Directed: Jeff Nichols
Stars: Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Jaeden Lieberher, Adam Driver, Bill Camp, Scott Haze, Sam Shepard, Paul Sparks, David Jensen, Sharon Landry
Production: Tri-State Pictures

Director/screenwriter Jeff Nichols has made quite a nice niche for himself creating clever, thought-provoking and atmospheric films about seemingly ordinary people placed in extraordinary circumstances. Whether it be the quite intensity of Michael Shannon in Take Shelter (2011) or the rascally roguishness of Matthew McConaughey in Mud (2012), Nichols always manages to find the humanity underneath the story in ways few directors can. His common leitmotif is middle-class, rural Americana and the quiet dignity thereof, to which Midnight Special is no exception.

Yet there's a little more at play here; another ball that's been thrown in the air for Nichols to juggle. The story takes place over the few days it takes for Alton Meyer (Lieberher) and father Roy (Shannon) to get from Texas to Florida. We're thrust into the middle of the action and forced to sift through visual cues and cryptic dialogue to discern the plot. What is obvious from the get go, is Alton, Roy and trusting partner in crime Lucas (Edgerton) are on the run from the FBI, the NSA and a religious cult who see Alton as a prophet and perhaps the second coming. The investigation of Alton's "abduction" is spearheaded by NSA lackey Paul Sevier (Driver) who sits uncomfortably with cult leader Calvin Meyer (Shepard) to find out how Alton has the ability to pickup encrypted satellite messages.

If put in other hands, years in turnaround would have turned Midnight Special into a bombastic sci-fi action-thriller and a clone of something we've seen a hundred times before; in other words, nothing special. Nichols wisely takes the sci-fi high concept and grounds it in a slow-burning human drama. Such an accomplishment would have been impossible if not for the film's talented cast. Michael Shannon's intense grimace seems specifically suited for films of great drama and intensity. Every showcase of Alton's "powers" is made believable not by intricate special effects details but by Shannon's reactions. Edgerton likewise does a commendable job as an outsider turned protector. It's his ingenuity and forethought that gets the team past everything standing in their way. Then of course there's Kirsten Dunst playing Alton's biological mother Sarah. She shows up halfway through the film but nevertheless manages to top Shannon and Edgerton by the power of haggard but stalwart guardianship. She along with newcomer Jaeden Lieberher are easily the best things about Midnight Special.

Seriously, are we getting to the point anytime soon?

Yet despite stellar acting and some admittedly impressive CGI set-pieces, Midnight Special suffers from the contrivance of the main story and the mode in which it is delivered. Nichols tries oh so hard to shroud the story in mystery that the story dances recklessly into kitsch and sabotages itself from reaching its full potential. The cryptic dialogue and coy editing works for about an hour or so. Our mind swells with questions like: who are these people; what's up with this cult; what is the significance of the location their headed to; what are all the character's relationships with the cult? But after the tension builds up without questions being answered, I could feel the dissatisfaction of the audience bubbling to the surface.

Even though we both know the details of the mission, I'm going
to explain this to you using paper and pen...

I give the collaborators on this film a lot of credit for refusing to talk down to it's audience with tortured exposition dumps and goofy sci-fi jargon. Only Adam Driver's character gets the closest to being a narrative conduit. But just when you think his NSA operative job is merely connective tissue, the film manages to sneak in a character arc that, while coming out of left field, feels natural. Still, some background wouldn't hurt given the fact that the film delves into theology, ontological philosophy, quantum physics and other concepts only expanded on in modern sci-fi literature. This movie feels engineered for the internet age, where Buzzfeed articles and comment section philosophizers can pick apart every detail to search of deeper meaning.

Oddly enough, this movie is thematically similar

A better Superman story than Batman v Superman

Midnight Special is a good film. It's well shot, well directed and fantastically acted by a cast that takes a convoluted script and turns it into a story loaded with subtext and chances to show honest human emotion. Jeff Nichols whom by all accounts is a talent with a bright future, as an acumen for building tension out of simple moments between characters and well timed sequences of intense action. Yet when the audience reaches a frenzy, Nichols struggles to deliver the catharsis we crave. Still you can't blame a movie for being ambitious which Midnight Special certainly is.

Final Grade: C