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Midnight Special

12/22/2016

10 Comments

 

B
​3.00

A father protects his supernaturally-gifted son from a cult and the feds.

Directed by Jeff Nichols
Starring Michael Shannon, Jaeden Lieberher, and Kirsten Dunst
Initial Review by Jon Kissel

Picture
​At some point in the future, history is going to judge Jeff Nichols as one of the great American directors.  He's made five films so far, and each is quintessentially representative of some facet of the country.  Shotgun Stories is a backwoods rivalry story, Mud features a modern day Tom Sawyer, and Loving (though a straightforward retelling of history and his worst film) finds the way that average people fall into grand circumstances but retain the desire to live a modest life.  Take Shelter is a masterpiece of modern cinema and Nichols' crowning achievement, a crystal-clear window into the post-recession US and the economic uncertainty that still characterizes so much of the country.  Midnight Special is Nichols' most explicitly supernatural film, and therefore elevates some of the proceedings into the fantastical, but between the mystical moments, there's still plenty of his trademark, well-observed emotionality.

Part-chase film, part-family drama, and part-benevolent alien tale, Midnight Special does these varyingly well.  The chase aspect is well-done throughout with few, if any, of the pitfalls of cat-and-mouse films, specifically the sense that the viewer is smarter than either the hunter or the prey.  The tense, lo-fi prologue is a nice example of competency porn, where intelligent and prepared people do their jobs without comment.  The viewer is left with an accumulation of detail that demonstrates that these people know what they're doing and have done it before.  Nichols does an excellent job conveying urgency as Roy and Lucas evade both the feds and the cult, adding the additional wrinkles of Alton's decaying health and the need to arrive at their destination by the predetermined deadline.  I do think the entire segment of Alton's time with the feds could've been cut, as it doesn't really advance the plot, but then that would've deprived us of the harrowing sequence when the cult hunters capture him while a wild Roy strains against a zip-tie.  I'll take as much delirious Michael Shannon as I can get.

​The benevolent alien aspect is where Nichols puts on his specifically American pants.  Alton eventually gets undifferentiated, unlimited powers that fit whatever he needs to be able to do in the moment, and I'm sure I've written some review or other talking about how I don't like that.  Again, that wouldn't stick out as much if the feds never captured him and he didn't have to escape, so cut that whole segment and I'm more optimistic.  Where Midnight Special separates itself from the K-Pax's of the world is in the cult, something I'm always going to gravitate towards onscreen, if not in real life.  It's possible that there are Danish equivalents and they just don't make US news, but these doomsday, millenarian, prepper cults feel unique to this country.  Nichols admirably doesn't make these characters look silly.  Instead, he builds the experience of interacting with Alton as a religious one for them, a version of confirmation bias for a cult that's surely predated his existence.  So many of their real-life counterparts go through their lives waiting for a miracle, and Alton is very much one of those. 

The reverence Alton is shown is baked into the plot and the dialogue. Even without the explicit references to him writing their bible and showing the parishioners visions, it would still be apparent just in the way he's spoken about.  When they stop by Elden's for a brief respite, the way Elden tells the party that 'he's prepared a room for [Alton]' is practically messianic in its delivery, like he's dictating future books of the bible that will document this exact moment.  For me, the doomsday thread is highly reminiscent of Take Shelter.  In that film, Nichols communicated dread so viscerally, that it's old hat for him five years later, and it's pretty disappointing when the cult so abruptly leaves the film with another 40 minutes to go.

Midnight Special is a quietly large film of alternate dimensions and beings of pure light, but it most excels in its depiction of a family.  The relationships between Alton and Roy, and later Sarah and Alton, are superlative child-parent portrayals, both in the broadly applicable and in the specificity to the film's circumstances.  Michael Shannon has to convey Roy's love of his son, and at the same time, his willingness to put him at risk to get to their destination, and he succeeds.  It's an oddly-loving version of zealotry, where safety is the secondary concern.  Roy could come easily off as a bully, but the picture of him as a father is too warm to allow for any doubt.  He's patiently indulgent of his son's eccentricities (the Spanish radio station), gets frustrated and immediately regrets it (gas station), and has an easy way of communicating his love for him (I like worrying about you).  Just the manner in which either character is given to saying 'Dad' or 'Alton' in times of stress, like one of Alton's attacks or as they are leaving each other for the last time, speaks volumes to their relationship.  Sarah shares that easy affection for her kid, as well as the fiery defense of him when she rips that shower bar out of the wall, and the combination feels deeply true.

Nichols is one of my favorite directors, and a large part of that is because Shannon has played a role in all of his films.  There are few actors better at playing a tightly-coiled ball of nerves than Shannon, and it makes him inherently watchable and magnetic.  There is the required blow-up in the abduction scene and its aftermath, with Shannon painfully swallowing his misery while driving through the checkpoint before releasing it a short time later.  He is able to juxtapose that with a bottomless well of warmth, and it's a combination that makes his Roy some of Shannon's best work. 

Nichols starts with his reliable stalwart at the top, and he moves down the call sheet with nothing but good performances.  Dunst is a strong counterpart to Shannon, softer but just as resolute.  Alton, played by Jaeden Lieberher, has a great deal of poise for a kid of his age.  Those distinctive blue goggles only make him look more fragile, and that look of pure sadness on his face the morning after the Elden episode is searing.  Joel Edgerton as Lucas surprised me with all the various notes he has to play, specifically the ecstasy of discovery which is another gimme for this viewer.  Adam Driver is a believable nerd, contrasting Lucas' joy with a milder intrigue.  From The Night Of, Bill Camp has a memorable role as the doomed and conflicted cult hunter, and I loved David Jensen's creepy devotion as Elden.

Midnight Special has a few rough edges on some of its storytelling, but as a vehicle for familial goodness, it's airtight.  Nichols is able to pack the whole arc of a father and son in a few days, as Roy takes care of Alton until he achieves a level of independence and he ultimately has to let him go off on his own.  This kind of relationship is a new facet to Nichols' career, as he hadn't so directly focused on it up til now, and in a completely unsurprising result, he nails it.  I do somewhat hope that he's got the supernatural stuff out of his system, though, before he embarks on whatever he does next.  If he can make an alien-esque story as affecting as this one, he'll only pack more emotional detail into something more grounded.  B+
10 Comments
Sean
12/22/2016 10:36:07 am

Kudos to Nichols for establishing the uneasiness in the viewer from the opening. The uneasy tone in the car carried throughout. This was definitely engaging and with great performances. I especially liked Lucas. An alternate version of this movie could've been told 90% through interviews between the FBI and the cult members with mini cuts to the group in escaping. It would've been equally compelling. Either way I wanted more cult even if they gave us some flashbacks of Alton with the cult while they were giving their information to the FBI.

Ultimately when it was over I was just as confused as I'd always been. In this world are we always inhabited by invisible light aliens who use the same architects as the resorts in Dubai? Did you impregnate Kristen Dunst or is Alton and the light people mutants born from humans? Does it matter? What was this movie even about? They probably could've made the same movie without aliens and made Alton a kid who presents somewhere on the spectrum but is able to decode messages and numbers which lead to both the cult devotions and the FBI fear all the same.

B

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Cooker
12/22/2016 11:37:41 am

Ah, yes, Midnight Special. So, was this about a special boy that was out and about at midnight, or was it just named after the song that appears in the end credits; and speaking of that song, why did it sound like it was performed by Oscar the Grouch?

The first time the kid’s eyes lit up I thought, what is this? X-Men Origins: Cyclops?

I enjoyed Midnight Special, but it definitely had some flaws for me. What happened to the cult? I feel like there was a lot of setup with this group and then that aspect of the story just dropped off once the two guys who took the kid back ran into the police. They kept saying that March 6th (maybe) was their judgement day and if the kid wasn’t there, things wouldn’t look good. When is/was March 6th in the movie? Did it pass? Did the cult members all die? I wanted to know these things after being invested in them in the beginning of the movie.

The visuals for the city above our world were well-done. Very cosmic. But once the story reached that “I’m not from here and need to go to the other city,” I thought the story was very E.T.-ish and meh. Everything leading up to that, the chases, the shootings, the conspiracies, the hiding out and switching cars, it was all enjoyable. I was fairly entertained for most of this movie. The acting was well-done by all the leads. The conclusion simply didn’t work for me.

I also know it wasn’t just me (because there was some back and forth dialogue on the Facebook page), but I was having issues with the volume. Now granted, I was watching it in the morning and not wanting to wake my wife up, but I feel like I was frequently fighting with the remote control to hear what was being said and then cranking it down when there was a bit of action. It got annoying. Although I feel like the latter half of the movie wasn’t as bad.

Enjoyable movie, but disappointing ending; sounds like my recent grading on The Witch. I’ll go with a B on this one, too.

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Bryan
12/23/2016 11:28:12 pm

I watched this after eating an incredible meal of Joella's hot chicken. The hot chicken was much more memorable. I'd also recommend their mac and cheese. I'm kind of a mac and cheese snob after finding Alton Brown's homemade mac and cheese recipe, but Joella's was top notch. The kale salad, green beans, and chick pea salad were all ok, but not top notch.

The characters really seemed into it except Kylo Ren (sp) (haven't seen the new Star Wars) who has already typecast himself, and wasn't great. I could have gone for A LOT more super natural special effects besides the weird eye thing. I'll go B.

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Jon
12/24/2016 12:16:03 am

Am I wrong in saying that this is the best review Bryan's ever written?

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Bryan
12/26/2016 02:06:35 pm

Thanks Jon. I'm down to B-, but I raised my grade on The Master to B-

Bobby
1/3/2017 11:13:24 pm

Midnight Special isn't special... but it's solid throughout. Jon has it right that the entire capture/escape/abilities portion is the worst of it, and while not poorly done, just unnecessary and the disappointment of the expected cliche type things (walking out of a government facility as if everybody wasn't waiting outside that door, showcasing new powers at the most convenient of times).

That said, the story was intriguing from the get go... and it was touching to see Alton's parents care and commit completely to doing what's best for their kid. I don't know if Nichols was trying to say it, but it played well against all the parents who abandon, abuse, and/or neglect their kids for being different. There's a warmth to their acceptance and devotion to Alton, and I'm for it.

The acting was solid all around, Michael Shannon being outstanding. The direction and visual aspect of the film was just as strong.

Solid movie, B+

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Drew
1/6/2017 03:36:39 pm

Why is this considered solid? It was the director who made it this way. To be honest, the story was dumb. It was basically a human version of E.T. Nothing more, nothing less but Jeff Nichols directed it in a compelling way that made viewers care about Alton getting home. One could argue viewers rooted for the outlaw family and their friend to succeed. It all, however, returned to Nichols. He told an incredibly moronic story well.

The one who shined in this film was Adam Driver. He showed his versatility as an actor by playing exactly what he resembles, a nerdy analyst. He had a couple of great lines but overall, Driver shined above the main actors. Shannon's character, on the other hand, was utterly pathetic. Roy's only memorable moment was when Alton was captured and he stated how his son kept him steadfast in life. Everything other scene that had Roy in it was a loud "meh" and that was alarming because he was meant to hold a better on - screen presence than what he achieved.

The E.T/mutant/whatever Alton played by Jaeden Lieberher was incredibly laughable. Truth be told, Lieberher was fine playing Alton but the character, in and of itself, was silly. Viewers were to buy into a notion of a powerful, child alien who needed to go home. Really? Maybe an argument could be made that Nichols poked fun at the Christian faith with all of the ridiculousness that surrounded Alton - cult following, superhuman power, not of the this world, must leave - but that would be too much. It just happened that Nichols retold a story but did it better than its original.

All in all, Midnight Special was nothing brilliant. It reached too far and landed in the "above OK." The only special parts of Midnight Special was its director and Adam Driver.

Grade: C+

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Lane
1/16/2017 04:44:04 pm

I’m sorry that I was too busy working/traveling to watch and do a good, thorough review of this film when it was still relevant to the current discussion in our club. I might have even enjoyed a good podcast debate on this one. My fault.

But here’s what I would have written…

I agree with Jon that Nichols is one of our great young directorial talents in the U.S. He’s also probably the deepest, most spiritual, and theological director making movies right now, and yet that seems to go mostly unnoticed. I don’t know Jeff Nichols’ religious background, but I think that here is a man that knows his Bible.

I view “Midnight Special” as the third movie in a triad that has basically been telling us the Biblical story. “Mud” was the creation story of Genesis 1 – 3 with it’s imagery of floods and boats and snakes and a mysterious figure who’s name, in Hebrew, would have been “Ad-am.” “Take Shelter” was straight from the Prophetic tradition, and Nichols rounds out his tour-de-Bible with a story from Revelation.

Viewing this movie as an alien movie is completely wrong. It’s actually an apocalypse movie, and the fact that culture doesn’t get that just goes to show what a red herring the “Left Behind” crap is. The Greek word for apocalypse actually means “unveiling;” it’s meant to denote the time in which the curtain between material reality and spiritual reality is lifted. Certain strands of (mostly) conservative evangelical Christianity get all caught up in seven headed dragons and horsemen and stuff like that, but the heart of Revelation is really found in the last two chapters when (see if this sounds familiar) the curtain is finally lifted and everyone comes to see that there’s been this entirely different world sitting right on top of ours (in this case, heaven) and now we all get to live in it. There’s a small minority of us Christian folk that believe (count myself as one of them) that heaven isn’t necessarily somewhere you go when you die; it’s somewhere that’s actually all around you right now. The trick is that you have to see it.

So, anyway…there’s my seminary reading of the film. How about the actual filmmaking itself…

I really enjoyed this film. The plot was tensely plotted and the emotional core of the film, the relationship between a child and his father, was at least a triple if not a homerun. Let me also praise Nichols for creating the most intense traffic jam I’ve ever seen depicted on film. I could feel my nerves just going haywire as they inched along the interstate.

Oh, also…the sound was absolutely fantastic. I bought this Pioneer sound bar/box thing about a year ago, and this was maybe the first movie that really put that puppy to the test. The sounds were both otherworldly and yet, natural at the same time. The flower pot on my mantle was shaking during some of the scenes.

Also, I love the way Nichols depicts the South in all his films, particularly the Florida pan-handle in this one, which is near where I grew up and is just as inhospitable to life and strangers as it appears.

What could have been done better? Well, I felt things were wrapped up in a little too nice a bow here. A reference was made to “E.T.” in a previous review, and I maybe would have liked to have seen a little less of Spielberg and a little more ambiguity in this film. Also, one of the things I loved about “Mud” was the bursts of violence and chaos, which we almost got in the hotel scene in “Midnight Special.” Maybe they were trying for a PG-13 rating here. This is an example where an “R” rating would have made the movie even better, I think.

I also wished Adam Driver could have been used more effectively. It was like Nichols couldn’t quite decide if he was a major plot point or simply comic relief. It’s a credit to Driver’s talent that he could have been either and the film might have been a little more effective, but splitting the difference was a bit of a waste of his presence.

Overall, I’m a fan of this film and love that we have a director making movies that work on so many levels. I was almost an A- on this one, but I think a B+ is well deserved.

Grade: B+

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Bryan
1/16/2017 05:02:10 pm

The whole audio/video quality thing is something we don't talk enough about. I watched A Hijacking at home with surround on and was engulfed. I watched Midnight Special on a crappy TV in a hotel post hot chicken.

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Lane
1/17/2017 02:48:32 am

I also should note that I was so glad to see that our future Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, produced this movie, which makes me think that our nation will continue to fund government efforts to remove the veil between the United States and heaven.

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