The Vast of Night

Every scene has been staged and shot with intelligence, intent, inventiveness, and a sense of play. To watch it is to get excited about the billions of different ways you can combine sound and moving images to tell a story.

The Vast of Night is the most absorbing piece of small-scale science fiction — the best since “Monsters” (2010), for sure — into which it’s been my privilege to be sucked. As Everett says, “If there’s something in the sky, I wanna know.” Same here.

Part "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," part "American Graffiti," and wholly its own stunning self, The Vast of Night is a debut of captivating weight and ingenuity.

That a film with such an apparently familiar narrative can keep us this intrigued is a credit to the film-makers – particularly Patterson, from whom we should expect to hear much more in the future.

The direction in the film is terrific, with an atmosphere and vibe so pervasively thick you can practically feel what it’s like in the town. And on this particular night — this vast night — it’s creepy indeed.

Yet not only does this bares-bones “Close Encounters” make a virtue out of found locations and empty night-time streets, it has the confidence of a story sure in its telling. It feels original.

That said, it works, sucking you into its “vast night” and taking us all back to an innocent time where the future was endless possibilities, “radio” was how a small town kid punched his “ticket out of here,” and TV took you to “another dimension…the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition.”

This is lovely and thoughtful. Absolutely worthwhile. You feel like you're listening to the radio at night.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This isn’t a bad movie the photography is very beautiful, but you can’t tell me the acting was good or that the script was engrossing enough to justify staring at people with emotionless expressions for long stretches. Rule breaking in the editing room isn’t fresh and would be aesthetically un pleasing to anyone who wasn’t looking to give the production bonus points for being novel. There is no payoff.

(Mauro Lanari) If you're on a ridiculous budget and want to (re)make "Close Encounters," debut with a movie like "The Blair Witch Project", add single theatrical act monologues and fixed or dynamic sequence shots, spend the little money for a unique special effect at the end. Forget about comparisons with Spielberg, Kelly or Nolan, thanks.

camerawork, photography, acting and lighting are all top notch. The script is very boring, up to 75 minutes in there are no relationships or plot points. blaaaah. High scoring reviews indicate Amazon is on top of the review as advertisement game.