Directed by:
Andrew PattersonCinematography:
Miguel Ioann Littin MenzCast:
Sierra McCormick, Jake Horowitz, Gail Cronauer, Mollie Milligan, Brett Brock, Richard Jackson, Gary Teague, Libby Villari, Bruce Davis, Cheyenne Barton (more)Plots(1)
Over the course of one night in 1950’s New Mexico, while all of the residents of a small town watch a high school basketball game, a young switchboard operator and a radio DJ believe a mystery is afoot. (Slamdance Film Festival)
Videos (1)
Reviews (2)
I have a great weakness for small, low-key indie films based on a unique approach to a genre concept or a distinctive formal adaptation. This category often brings forth both enthusiasm and disappointment when the obvious creativity and ingenuity of the filmmakers is combined with obvious production limitations or, in the worst case, unfinished screenplays. But there is even greater euphoria when, every once in a while, a thoroughly polished work such as The Vast of Night emerges. This debut ode to fantastical stories such those as found in the Twilight Zone as well as to the golden era of futurism is not bogged down in retro, but uses its period setting to uniquely link the concept of radio plays with the expressive drama of modern film. Just as in the referential works of the aforementioned iconic series, here it is also necessary for the viewer to accept a certain degree of fantasy, naïveté and pathos, as well as patience. The reward then becomes a gradually intensification of the atmosphere and a splendidly escalating narrative and absorbing formal grasp of the individual sequences, which can be impressive both as evidence that it is still possible to breathe new life into genre stories that have already been told numerous times and as the filmmaker’s presentation of new talents. Fortunately, the ambition to work with various means of expression is completely subordinate in the context of the work as a whole. Instead of being a spectacular exhibition, the film thus shows thoughtful and decisive mastery of all means of expression in media. The predominant long camera approaches (including one lasting nine minutes), dramatic rides and the various ways of handling dialogue passages by editing, zoom and rapid montages work superbly with particular scenes and with the overall dramaturgy of the picture while, furthermore, preserving the dimension of specific scenes and the overall dramaturgy of the film and maintaining the dimension of a radio play.
()
It begins with a tiresome twenty-minute exposition, during which a conceited radio announcer smokes on the deck, berates his friend, and engages in a cheap conversation with the screenwriter about how people in the past viewed the future. I thought this was meant to highlight his insignificance in contrast to what he would face, but it turns out to be nothing. It’s strong when it lets the imagination work (a radio conversation with a soldier, the story of a lonely retiree) and features an interesting Evil Dead-style flyover of a twilight zone town. However, this doesn’t outweigh the pointlessness of the chatty characters, who are keeping the local optician in business, and the unnecessarily explicit finale, where a third kind and possibly more make an appearance. I assume that after the final cut, the X-Files Cigarette Smoking Man stubbed out his cigarette on Andrew Patterson's director’s chair and whispered in his ear: "I can kill you whenever I please... but not today..."
()
Ads