MOVIE OF THE MONTH: APRIL 2016

Director          : Jeff Nichols
Story              : Jeff Nichols
Music             : David Wingo
Camera          : Adam Stone
Distributor     : Warner Bros. Pictures
Running time : 111 minutes
Country         : United States

Everybody’s been calling Midnight Special an homage to Steven Spielberg. But director Jeff Nichols didn’t plan it that way, which he was keen to make clear the moment we sat down to talk about the film. Sure, Midnight Special, which expands wide this weekend, owes some of its DNA to Spielberg’s work like ET and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but Nichols was not aiming for that.

Even so, he admits the comparisons make a certain amount of sense. Midnight Special stars Michael Shannon as Roy, the father of a mysterious boy named Alton. Roy, along with a friend played by Joel Edgerton, kidnap Alton from a cult to bring him to bigger and better things. Alton has special powers, can’t go out at night, and occasionally shoots blue light from his eyes. 

Nichols admits the movie’s science-fiction chase structure is in the mold of those Spielberg films (as well as John Carpenter’s Starman) but he’s frustrated by reviews that say the film either fails, or succeeds, in hitting that Spielberg sweet spot. The Director of Midnight Special Wishes You'd Stop Calling It a Spielberg Homage. 

Scifi is almost always built out of personal feelings, but it’s sometimes about universe-building too. Midnight Special sets up a big, interesting, universe, but is very careful as to what information we actually learn about it. Nichols swears he has those answers, because he outlined the entire history of the movie from the birth of the adult characters and past the jaw-dropping ending. 

Website: http://www.midnightspecialmovie.com

Review Courtesy: http://io9.gizmodo.com