and I can say with some certainty that Jeff Nichols has a heck of a career ahead of him.
To be frank, after your first 1000 or so IMDb reviews, you get a bit cynical. You start to understand that, in spite of the hype, movies are not as good as they used to be -- more like production-line white-bread, all mapped out and pre-sold into the appropriate distribution channels before the first viewer ever even gets a look -- and that in the same time period, TV has come to surpass film in terms of quality and entertainment value.
And then every now and then you get a film like Midnight Special and for a brief moment you start to think this medium might someday recapture its glory days.
I am not going to tell the story or do anything which will diminish your experience, should you choose to see this film.
I will simply say that, if you believe the primary goal of a movie is to hold your interest and entertain, this one does the job from the first frame to the closing credits.
Boy is that refreshing!
The actors -- not name actors -- were excellent.
The special effects were mind-boggling, especially for an indie.
The script breaks (or bends) some rules of conventional narrative but otherwise is so tight you could use it for a drum solo.
Highly recommended.
