The Vast of Night

[wilder]

In the twilight of the 1950s, on one fateful night in New Mexico, a young, winsome switchboard operator Fay (Sierra McCormick) and charismatic radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz) discover a strange audio frequency that could change their small town and the future forever. Dropped phone calls, AM radio signals, secret reels of tape forgotten in a library, switchboards, crossed patchlines and an anonymous phone call lead Fay and Everett on a scavenger hunt toward the unknown.

Directed by Andrew Patterson
Screenplay by James Montague and Craig W. Sanger
Release Date - May 29th on Amazon Prime

[Sleepless]

Got to watch a screener of this for Indie Spirit Awards. I loved it. It's rough in places and doesn't do what you'd think it'd do, but it's a fascinating experience. It takes a lot of unconventional shots; sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Heartily recommend.

Does this mean it's not eligible for Xixax awards this year?

[wilder]

Coming to Amazon May 29th

[wilberfan]

Yep.  Got my hopes up again.

Heard good buzz about another first-time director that was getting a lot of attention.  Imagine my shock when one of the leads spends the first 15-solid minutes of the film mumbling his dialogue with a cigarette in his mouth.  (Without the subtitles I would have been completely lost.)  Some flashy camera moves--probably even more impressive for what must have been a pretty low budget, but it felt more like a sizzle-reel or filmed radio play than it did a movie. 

The dialogue just won't stop.  It wouldn't even pause to catch a breath.  I was mentally exhausted (literally) after 40 minutes of listening to these people talk and talk and talk and talk.  Bailed at the 40-minute mark--after almost nothing of consequence had happened (other than the aformentioned slick camera gymnastics).   

[Alethia]

Predictably, I loved this haha Really impressively crafted, immersive experience that captures what it could actually feel like to uncover something "out of this world" while at the same time being firmly rooted in the here and now (of then). Just enough room to breathe between the big moments to allow the characters to feel like fully-rounded individuals in extraordinary circumstances (the two leads are terrific); a scenario that we've seen play out numerous times in other films/tv shows, but never quite like this. Brought me right back to the summer of 2000, age 13, when I spent most evenings feverishly working on my thoroughly derivative, VHS-shot sci-fi pastiche, firmly a believer (only to abandon it all that fall upon discovering Magnolia). A throwback of the highest order.

[BB]

Spoilers

You're both right. For me, not a *good* movie per se but definitely an interesting one. Does so much right (if a lil show-offy) but fails at something really basic, which is being about something, telling an engaging story. On every level, the craft so far exceeds the material, I almost couldn't believe it. There's this odd quality to it where it's building tension and you're thinking, oh something exciting is gonna happen. And it doesn't. There must be some great mystery. And there isn't, it's aliens. Well the aliens must be crazy-looking or have some novel agenda or something. And the movie just kinda ends. But it did such a great job building that tension.

Not to say that the script is thin. It's structured really well, good dialogue, good character work. Even the plotting, in the sense of its flow from one scene to the next -- all good! It doesn't drag, just nothing new or exciting happens. Kept waiting for a twist, especially with the Twilight Zone/Outer Limits framing device, and it just never came.

Found myself thinking about it though in the days since watching. Very much something I would've dug when I was like 9 years old and it kinda made me feel something of being that age. Happy to have seen it and thought about it.