Midnight Special

Unique American filmmaker Jeff Nichols has achieved critical success with his first three features Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter and Mud, none of which found similar triumphs at the box office. His latest feature, Midnight Special - starring Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst and Adam Driver - is his most ambitious film to date, and with his largest budget thus far, so it has a lot to prove to audiences and critics alike.

Alton Meyer (Jaeden Lieberher) sits in the rear of a car with Roy (Michael Shannon) and state-trooper Lucas (Joel Edgerton) as they cruise through the night with no headlights, evading a state-wide manhunt issued by the AMBER alert system. Alton wears bright-blue goggles and can only be outside at night. He has some serious powers that nobody fully understands and has been the religious focus of a cult on the ranch that he was taken from. The FBI and the NSA are out on the search, with agent Sevier (Adam Driver) trying to gain as much information about the boy as quickly as possible. Nobody knows where they’re going, not even us. All we know if that it’s crucial to the future of the planet.

Right off the bat, it’s clear that Midnight Special is a surprisingly beautiful movie. Shot on film and harking back to some of the more minimalistic 70s and 80s sci-fi flicks, it doesn't present a hyper real world or a CGI riddled environment, but the level of thought behind every visual decision from DoP Adam Stone is obvious. With large sections of the film occurring at night, it’s these sequences that shine, and there’s certainly no pun intended there because half the time it’s literally impossible to see what’s going on. The action is just hinted at; the silhouette of a car travelling down the road with no headlights on, the thin sliver of light on the horizon. The night scenes show a degree of subtlety which is often left abandoned by sci-fi films for fancy special effects sequences. Sequences which ultimately destroy any sense of noiresque mystery that make films of this ilk so unique.

But you didn't come here to read about the visuals, and Midnight Special’s soundtrack is just as impressive. The immersive sound-scape manages a lot with the few action sequences at hand, and in quieter scenes the subtle layers of environment come alive. David Wingo’s intense score pulls you in and somehow manages to only become intrusive at a couple of moments. But Ed, what about the costuming? Well the decision to give Alton goggles was...alright alright, so I admit, I might have struggled a bit with Midnight Special’s story. An obvious homage to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Midnight Special’s ambitious plot is mysterious, and often captivating but most of the time I just couldn't get enough information to really care about the characters or invest myself in the story.

Take the beginning for instance, through an intense opening montage we learn that a boy has been supposedly kidnapped from a ranch belonging to a religious cult, we know that Edgerton and Shannon’s characters are involved, and that’s about it. It’s clever and provides a set up that draws us in, but it continues like this for most of the film, with the little crucial details that keep us asking questions just not provided. It’s frustrating to say the least, especially since the film’s story clearly has some interesting things to say.

Before more is revealed, you’re forced to side with either a misguided cult or two men who have kidnapped a young boy, yet any presumptions you might make about either side are not backed up with anything indicative of what you might expect, which makes it difficult to decide who - if any of them - is doing the right thing. It’s also unclear exactly what Alton’s powers are - even when we see them in use - and how they relate to these theories about another dimension of beings. The third stakeholder in the story is the government, specifically the FBI and NSA, who are the clear antagonists. The NSA agent Sevier - an Edward Snowden-like figure who secretly helps Alton - is sort of like the comic relief, and well played by Adam Driver. In fact the film has great performances all round, especially from Michael Shannon and Jaeden Lieberher. Sadly though the performances can only convey so much.

Midnight Special is an expertly constructed film. It’s beautiful, well acted and has so much potential lying under the surface. However, whilst I’m normally one to favour the ambiguous plot-line, it consistently failed to reveal enough to keep me on the edge of my seat, or away from that all-too-telling watch glance.

Classic Review: Days of Heaven (1978)

Terrence Malick is considered to be one of the greatest living filmmakers, if not the greatest, which seems insane considering he has only made six films in close to forty years. But after watching his second film Days of Heaven it is hard to argue with such a claim.

Bill (Richard Gere) and Abby (Brooke Adams) are two con artists who travel the countryside trying to survive. Bill's younger sister Linda (Linda Manz) joins them in journeying to the Texas Panhandle, where the get jobs as sackers on a wheat farm. The farm is run by The Farmer (Sam Shepard), who falls in love with Abby, believing her to be Bill's sister.

Whilst that plot may sound rather straightforward, that description comes nowhere near what the film is about or how what happens in the film. Malick wrote the film but threw away the script and let the three leads of Gere, Adams and Shepard form what would happen in the movie. The result is flowing saga of a love triangle that is a surprisingly gripping story in the hands of the talented Malick. This talent comes through even more in his editing of the film, which took over two years. His decision to run with an improvised script made it difficult for him to make a cohesive story and it was only after a completely improvised narration from Manz, that he was happy with the finished product.

One thing that really makes a Malick film, however, is the stunning cinematography. Néstor Almendros made the film look insanely beautiful by shooting only during the magic hours of dusk and dawn (although this 'hour' generally lasts 20 minutes), a time where it is light but there is no sun present. This effect gives the film a softer look that suits its 1916 setting. Malick loves his animal close ups and they are a recurring element in all his films, but I really thought that he didn't need to show us what locust mandibles look like up close. Another crucial element of this film is Ennio Morricone's score, which I have to say is one of the most beautiful, and yet chilling, film scores I have ever heard.

You could also say that this movie is just about four very subtle performances, all of them amazing. Richard Gere is too charming to think of as your stereotypical conman, but you can definitely see that he has a darker side to him. All he loves in the world are Abby and Linda and will do anything to make a good life for them. You can see the other side of this love in Brooke Adams, although she gives a great performance as she begins to fall for The Farmer. Sam Shepard is absolutely fantastic as a man who wants nothing more than have someone to love, since he has nothing more that he could want. As pointed out before, Manz also narrates the film and it is this narration that provides some background to the characters. It is also funny in parts.

Verdict: Days of Heaven is a true masterpiece that I wish I had known about before watching it. What's even more amazing is that Malick took a twenty year hiatus between this and his next film, The Thin Red Line.

August: Osage County

Over the years, I have always wanted to see a classic film when it first arrived at cinemas, be it Pulp Fiction, Taxi Driver or Casablanca. With the release of August: Osage County, I feel as though I have had that opportunity. With a fantastic cast, extremely well written script and superb direction, I find it hard to fault this film.

It follows a family from Oklahoma who have come together for the first time in years because their father Beverly (Sam Shepard) has gone missing. Their mother, Violet (Meryl Streep), is an abrasive woman who is addicted to prescription medication. The three daughters, Barbara, Ivy and Karen (Julia Roberts, Julianne Nicholson and Juliette Lewis, respectively), each with their own problems, come together to try and comfort their mother.

For a film with a lot going on in terms of story and sub-plots, everything is presented quite clearly and this comes down to Tracy Letts' brilliant script (he also wrote the award-winning play on which the film is based). It's never hard to keep track of everyone's story and every plot element is resolved without being dismissed too quickly.

John Wells direction is also very evocative. He brings out stellar performances from his entire cast and shoots each scene in an extremely planned way. One of the major scenes in the film revolves around a family dinner and it is shot in such a way that the audience is gripped for the entire duration.

The two standout performances come from both Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. Streep is amazingly witty, yet at the same time sharp-tounged, as the matriarch of the family. It is definitely a standout role for her in her recent career (even though her recent career has been full of those). Julia Roberts has come a long way from the roles that she played early on (both Runaway Bride and Pretty Woman were terrible in my book). She is excellent as a long suffering daughter who just wants to be done with her family.

Verdict: A fantastic family drama that is surprisingly funny. Stellar performances from both Streep and Roberts.