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- 2020
- PG-13
- Amazon Studios
- 1 h 31 m
- 2020
- PG-13
- Amazon Studios
- 1 h 31 m
Summary 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...
Directed By: Andrew Patterson
Written By: Craig W. Sanger, Andrew Patterson
- 2020
- PG-13
- Amazon Studios
- 1 h 31 m
- 2020
- PG-13
- Amazon Studios
- 1 h 31 m
The Vast of Night
6.6
Where to Watch
Summary 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...
Directed By: Andrew Patterson
Written By: Craig W. Sanger, Andrew Patterson
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 35 Critic Reviews
84
100% Positive
35 Reviews
35 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 35 Critic Reviews
84
100% Positive
35 Reviews
35 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Every scene has been staged and shot with intelligence, intent, inventiveness, and a sense of play. To watch it is to get excited about the billions of different ways you can combine sound and moving images to tell a story.
The Vast of Night is the most absorbing piece of small-scale science fiction — the best since “Monsters” (2010), for sure — into which it’s been my privilege to be sucked. As Everett says, “If there’s something in the sky, I wanna know.” Same here.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 160 User Ratings
6.6
63% Positive
101 Ratings
101 Ratings
21% Mixed
33 Ratings
33 Ratings
16% Negative
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 160 User Ratings
6.6
63% Positive
101 Ratings
101 Ratings
21% Mixed
33 Ratings
33 Ratings
16% Negative
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
Like a great twilight zone episode. The ending was a little bit of a let down. But the story and music was great.
Report
Innovation in editing gives the film the most feeling, as if a story is being told on an old TV, someone is sitting behind the old TV and following the story, the screen turns black because that person closes his eyes in fear, we go to those scenes. We look at the eyes of the second person from the mobile phone, but who is the third person? Who is looking at us? This is the whole story, all.
Report
Part "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," part "American Graffiti," and wholly its own stunning self, The Vast of Night is a debut of captivating weight and ingenuity.
That a film with such an apparently familiar narrative can keep us this intrigued is a credit to the film-makers – particularly Patterson, from whom we should expect to hear much more in the future.
The direction in the film is terrific, with an atmosphere and vibe so pervasively thick you can practically feel what it’s like in the town. And on this particular night — this vast night — it’s creepy indeed.
Yet not only does this bares-bones “Close Encounters” make a virtue out of found locations and empty night-time streets, it has the confidence of a story sure in its telling. It feels original.
That said, it works, sucking you into its “vast night” and taking us all back to an innocent time where the future was endless possibilities, “radio” was how a small town kid punched his “ticket out of here,” and TV took you to “another dimension…the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition.”
This isn’t a bad movie the photography is very beautiful, but you can’t tell me the acting was good or that the script was engrossing enough to justify staring at people with emotionless expressions for long stretches. Rule breaking in the editing room isn’t fresh and would be aesthetically un pleasing to anyone who wasn’t looking to give the production bonus points for being novel. There is no payoff.
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(Mauro Lanari)
If you're on a ridiculous budget and want to (re)make "Close Encounters," debut with a movie like "The Blair Witch Project", add single theatrical act monologues and fixed or dynamic sequence shots, spend the little money for a unique special effect at the end. Forget about comparisons with Spielberg, Kelly or Nolan, thanks.
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Awards
Hollywood Critics Association Midseason Awards
• 4 Nominations
Indiana Film Journalists Association, US
• 4 Nominations
International Online Cinema Awards (INOCA)
• 4 Nominations
