It's fair to say that movies theaters have had an extremely difficult year so far, as the worldwide coronavirus pandemic has led to the temporary closure of just about every chain. While many film studios anticipate these chains may reopen next month (as well as planned theatrical releases of Russell Crowe's action-thriller Unhinged, Christopher Nolan's time-bending epic Tenet, and Disney's live-action Mulan remake), streaming services have been the main platforms for watching or binging TV shows and movies at home. Now with the just-released HBO Max, viewers have several options along with Amazon to Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and video-on-demand (VOD).
In a rare bold move, Amazon Studios decided that, prior to its debut on their Prime streaming service, they would provide sneak previews of their newest original film, The Vast of Night, at select drive-in venues across the nation. Giving audiences an opportunity to go to the movies outdoors while basking in fresh air--and keeping social distancing regulations in tact--drive-ins could be making something of a nostalgic comeback, if only for the moment.
It seems fitting that, given current circumstances, this low-budget sci-fi mystery (an impressive debut from director Andrew Patterson, filmed in 2016 and debuting at Slamdance in 2019) centers around a duo of teenage radio employees who intercept--and eventually broadcast--a mysterious airwave frequency. Imagine an unseen episode of The Twilight Zone, with a little bit of Rod Serling's iconic narration thrown in. Stranger Things, meet your distant relative.
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| The Vast of Night recently played at the Midway Drive-In in Kent, OH |
Set in the fictional town of Cayuga, New Mexico, in the 1950s during Cold War paranoia, ads and trailers suggest a conventional flying-saucer picture. The early buzz and praise I heard surrounding this film had little to do with those conventions and more to do with the way the story was told.
The first twenty minutes are practically the two main characters (the fast-talking, charismatic radio DJ, Everett, and his switchboard operator friend, Fay) having conversations about tape recorders, while interviewing local residents at an evening basketball game. Jake Horowitz and Sierra McCormick (terrific as Everett and Fay) naturally play off of and overlap each other's dialogue, much like Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford in All the President's Men. One only needs to pay close attention to the subtle direction and writing in this sequence, in terms of how much character and town information is condensed and discussed.
One other particularly long take (roughly nine minutes) occurs at the aforementioned radio station, while a tracking shot across farmland and into the school gymnasium is equally impressive. Add to that brilliant sound design (i.e., nighttime cricket sounds), several peppered quick-cuts, edge-of-your-seat supporting roles (an unseen soldier named Billy and a local residence named Mabel), interlude images of a dated Fifties television set (some with the screen covered in blue palettes), a score that's not merely jumpy but on the verge of being so, and mesmerizing cinematography that make the impeccable setting more intimate and believable (not to mention several "how-did-they-do-that" shots).
Judging from the ads and trailers, one would expect government or secret service agents to come in, or for characters to explicitly use the term "aliens" or the like. Without spoiling, let me just say that the filmmakers smartly and unexpectedly subvert these conventional genre pitfalls, ditto predictable dialogue. This is creative, first-rate filmmaking. It's also a noteworthy reminder that what is unseen is scarier and more enigmatic (a la old radio mysteries) than what is seen. Perhaps all the more reason to see this terrific feature at whichever drive-in it's currently playing.
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