Review of Midnight Special (2016) by Maksim B — 13 Jul 2016

An old-school, Spielbergian sci-fi mystery, Midnight Special is an intriguing, down-to-earth and touching drama. A tale focused more on family values, emotion and feelings, rather the sci-fi mystery; this is a provocative piece of classic film-making that deserves much more than its B-movie status.

Roy (Michael Shannon) is a former member of a religious sect who decides to escape his community with his young son Alton. The young boy seems to possess over unique and mysterious abilities which also attract the attention of the US authorities and NSA. Chased by their former religious family and by the different authorities, Roy, his boy and their friend Lucas (Joel Edgerton) try to find Alton's mother Sarah (Kirsten Dunst) and then to reach the place which Alton feels that he should go to.

The story is pretty standard, but it is told with a restrained pacing which skillfully builds up the tension and slowly reveals elements of Alton's abilities and gifts. One of the remarkable aspects of Jeff Nichols' movie is that Midnight Special never delves deeper into the sci-fi elements, but remains focused on the family elements in the whole story. This might result in some viewers getting partially disappointed if they had approached the movie with the idea of seeing a pure sci-fi delivery, but the rest will be quite surprised and pleased with the dramatic elements in the script. It is true that the gripping first half loses its hold on the audience towards the end, but the level of transcendent science fiction story-telling mixed with a story of humanity will surely impress and compensate for the final lack of proper climax. Add up to this the murky and mesmerizingly realistic performances by Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton and Kirsten Dunst and you will get a movie that is worth being seen and that should have received much bigger box-office praise.

In conclusion, Midnight Special is the sort of a B-movie that must be seen simply because it is so much better than most of the Hollywood mainstream deliveries. It offers not only an intriguing mystery, but also a family drama and enough unanswered questions that will keep your mind occupied quite some time after the final credits.