Midnight Special

Modern sci-fi is nowadays more concerned with spectacle and special effects than it is with telling an intelligent, off-kilter story.

Very often, the fantastical elements are brought to the fore. Focus isn't necessarily given to the story so much as it's given over to how strange and wonderful it all is. There's a simple reason for that, of course. Advances in CGI has meant that filmmakers can now have their wildest, most fantastical imaginations realised with little or no expense. As we know, it wasn't always that way. Directors had to be smarter and tell the story more imaginatively in order to get the point across. John Carpenter's Starman is a perfect example of this and, in a lot of ways, Midnight Special shares common DNA with Starman. The difference here, of course, is that Starman was released in 1984 and Midnight Special is due for release in the middle of 2016.

Michael Shannon and Joel Edgerton are on the run with Jaeden Lieberher, a young and unusual child who is gifted in strange ways. As well as being able to receive radio and satellite transmissions and recite them back, he also seems to be sensitive to daylight and various other oddities that force the trio to stay off the grid wherever possible. The trio are being pursued by two different forces - one is the US Government, led by Adam Driver, who believe that the young child is a potential weapon of mass destruction whilst the other is being led by Sam Shepard and his henchmen, who believe that he is the voice of God.

The film acts like a road movie, looks and sounds like a sci-fi movie, but at it's heart, Midnight Special is about the lengths people go to protect their children and the cost of being a parent. Michael Shannon gives one of his best performances as the haunted father of a child he can't possibly hope to understand. Nevertheless, he loves the child unconditionally and he reciprocates as best he can. Joel Edgerton, meanwhile, is stone-faced and practical, calling to mind a young Clint Eastwood or Kurt Russell - exactly the kind of character that John Carpenter would write. Later, Kirsten Dunst comes into the story as the boy's mother and adds a real sense of warmth to the film. Adam Driver, meanwhile, is more closer to Bob Balaban - a nerdy, nervy scientist who just wants to understand what's in front of him instead of understanding the consequences of it all.

Unlike JJ Abrams' Super 8, Midnight Special isn't so much a pastiche of '80s sci-fi adventures as it feels like it could have been made in that era. The special effects are minimalist and in-camera, save for a few scenes here and there. Nothing feels extraneous and the film moves at a steady and rhythmic pace. The various stop-offs along their journey feel genuine and logical and those chasing them, as well, adhere to the same. Jeff Nichols' eye for cinematography and setting up a shot still holds true here. Unlike his previous effort, the also-excellent Mud, there's less emphasis on staging a scene so much as it's effortlessly elegant - again, a lot like John Carpenter. Even the soundtrack sounds like it came from the era, all synths and random sounds with a real sense of atmosphere to it.

Overall, Midnight Special is probably one of the best sci-fi films you'll see this year. A simple but touching story, told efficiently and elegantly, with a strong cast - that clocks in under two hours and isn't part of a wider universe or following on from a sequel. When was the last time you could say that about a sci-fi film?