Review of Midnight Special (2016) by Canella G — 18 Jul 2016

Jeff Nichols doesn't have the talent or craft to mess around in the land of Close Encounters and Starman. Sorry, but this movie was utter gobleygook. And by playing it so close to Carpenter, Nichols is practically begging for the comparison.

It does not compare well. Some of these scenes played like bad Saturday Night Live scenes. Adam Driver putting it all together on a board basically seemed like a very green film school director doing an homage to Close Encounters.

But most importantly, Sci Fi needs to be based in empathy and the human condition to be profound. Ray Bradbury built far out metaphors from foundations of reality. This movie's message is that Jeff Nichols is special.

A special visionary. We saw M. Night Shamalamadingdong go thru a similar ego craze after The Sixth Sense. The difference is, M made a great movie with Unbreakable, even if it was the beginning of a deeply disturbed messianic streak in his work.

Trust me, this is the beginning of the heavy messianic streak in Nichols' work beginning to show nakedly. It's been there all along if you look closely. He is heading straight for his own Lady In The Water.