{"id":85031,"date":"2016-04-04T01:00:23","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T00:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=85031"},"modified":"2016-04-15T11:50:55","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T10:50:55","slug":"midnight-special-film-review-starman-meets-et","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/reviews\/midnight-special-film-review-starman-meets-et\/","title":{"rendered":"Midnight Special film review: Starman meets ET"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Following<em><b> Shotgun Stories<\/b><\/em><\/span><span class=\"s2\">, <em><strong>Take Shelter<\/strong><\/em> and <em><strong>Mud<\/strong><\/em>, writer-director Jeff Nichols continues his incredible run of form with this smart and sensitive homage to Eighties sci-fi classics. With so many filmmakers merrily lifting from the gloomier work of John Carpenter, it\u2019s refreshing to see a movie latch on to <em><strong>Starman<\/strong><\/em>\u2019s sense of wonder, as well as its chase-movie structure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">The target of this manhunt is Alton Meyer (Jaeden Lieberher), a child with special powers who has been abducted by his father Roy (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=prdOOo8hHq0\">Michael Shannon<\/a>) from the religious commune that has been treating him as a miracle. Roy needs to get him to a certain location in three days, but can they evade the fanatics and government forces while keeping Alton alive?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">As much as <em><strong>Midnight Special<\/strong><\/em> lifts from Carpenter and Spielberg, it\u2019s absolutely a Jeff Nichols film. He displays incredible confidence as the film jumps right in, trusting the viewer to keep up. That lack of condescension is both bracing and refreshing, as Nichols relies upon his cast to convey the characters\u2019 histories with glances and gestures while keeping the plot moving. It\u2019s all so grounded that it\u2019s almost easy to forget how invested you\u2019ve become in their journey, until Nichols puts them in jeopardy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">A big part of that is obviously due to the performances. Shannon is superb as the driven father, channelling that unpredictable intensity into a desperate protectiveness, while Joel Edgerton quietly steals the film as Roy\u2019s deceptively big-hearted driver\/muscle. Kirsten Dunst doesn\u2019t appear until roughly halfway, but completes the family unit beautifully, and Adam Driver brings a nice sense of humour and awe to his NSA scientist who becomes the de facto Alton Meyer expert.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">Nichols embraces the structural simplicity of the road movie, with the pursuing forces and Alton\u2019s health acting as the ticking clock. Teasing hints are dropped about Alton\u2019s powers, and the fragments of it we witness are incredible. Somehow, Nichols has managed to combine that Spielbergian feel of something magical we\u2019ll never quite understand with a family story that is utterly involving and moving.\u00a0This is something special.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is Jeff Nichols&#8217; Midnight Special the glorious sci-fi spectacle we&#8217;re hoping for?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":85033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[2615,8],"tags":[3360],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Midnight-Special.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}