Midnight Special

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Jeff Nichols/Starring: Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Adam Driver, Sam Shepard, Jaeden Lieberher and Bill Camp

Jeff Nichols, director of the creepy and intense Take Shelter, now ventures into the sci-fi realm with Midnight Special, which comes with its own measure of intensity. Joining Nichols is his frequent collaborator; the always impressive Michael Shannon, whose tightly-wound performance ensures the drama always simmers. While maintaining an exciting, kinetic pace, the story's mysteries are dispensed sparingly until its wondrous climax--which elicits a sense of wonder--mitigates the film's heightened edginess.

Nichols' film begins in what is a chapel on the grounds of a doomsday cult compound in Texas. The cult's reverend, Calvin Meyer (Sam Shepard), has just been accosted by FBI personnel during his service, while his bewildered congregation looks on. Questioning the reverend behind closed doors, we learn the FBI is looking for Meyer's adopted son Alton (Jaeden Lieberher); a child the parish looks upon as their savior. Why would a little boy be of importance to both the government and a cult? NSA analyst Paul Sevier (Adam Driver) gets to the heart of the matter when he asks how and why a little boy would have encrypted codes to a government satellite?
The boy becomes more of a mystery when Meyer tells the agents the boy speaks in tongues.

As the FBI and NSA hunt for Alton, Meyer dispatches two cult members to find the boy and return him to the compound. Meanwhile, Alton's real father; Roy (Michael Shannon) and his best friend Lucas (Joel Edgerton) have taken the boy from the compound and are racing off to a place unknown to the audience. Judging from Roy and Lucas' desperate determination, we gather they are fully aware other interested parties are hot on their tail as they speed down the highway. We first catch a glimpse of Alton in Roy's car as we see the young boy in odd, blue goggles, though we aren't sure of their purpose. As Roy and Lucas plot their course, Alton is enthralled with a Superman comic book. Roy gently chides Lucas for giving Alton comic books after the boy asks about Kryptonite. We learn comic books were a pleasure denied Alton in the compound.

While on the run, their car becomes known to the authorities, making a safe refuge a high priority. They visit a former member of the cult, who offers them shelter and anonymity. During their stay, the house begins to shake violently, which prompts Roy and Lucas to enter Alton's bedroom, where they find a blinding ray of light connecting his eyes to this friend's. Roy and Lucas manage to free their friend from the link and scold their friend for daring to look into Alton's eyes. Their security compromised, Roy, Lucas and Alton flee.

Nichols; a master at holding the audience captive in an unnerving and sustained state of suspense, slowly reveals Alton's secrets. Though the origin of Alton's extraordinary powers is withheld until later in the film, we get some sense of the scope of his abilities. During a stop at convenience store, Alton wanders away from the vehicle and into the parking lot. There he stares at the sky until Roy hurries to his side from inside the store. As they both look up into the sky, they (and we) see glowing orbs of light, which begin to bombard the parking lot. The three drive away hurriedly and later, during the FBI and NSA's investigation, we find that Alton has essentially destroyed a satellite designed to warn against nuclear attack. Other, less destructive powers emerge. While driving, Alton begins to speak Spanish. Roy tells Lucas that it is something he does often and while turning the radio dial, we find that Alton is actually repeating a Spanish DJ's radio patter word for word.

Roy and Lucas manage to find Alton's mother Sarah (Kirsten Dunst), who takes them in and hides them. We find that Sarah gave up her son in the past due to her inability to care for him.

Alton is ultimately kidnapped after Meyer's armed thugs shoot Lucas and Roy. But before they can give chase, they discover Alton has been captured by the military and government agents.

During Alton's captivity, he is held in an empty, white room. His goggled face gives the impression of someone strange and alien. In one of the film's best scenes, Alton and Sevier meet inside the chamber while the other personnel are dismissed. Alton tells Sevier that he is neither the savior the cult craves nor the weapon the government believes he is. Sevier becomes sympathetic to Alton's plight, knowing the boy must reach the place which his father and Lucas intend to find. After helping Alton to reunite with Roy and Lucas, Sevier handcuffs himself to make it appear as though he was overpowered. Refusing Sevier's request to come along, Alton, Roy, Lucas and Sarah speed away.

In time, Alton finally reveals his true nature and why he must reach the area for which he and the others have risked their lives.

Nichols doesn't cheat the audience with anti-climactic nonsense but satisfies our intense curiosity about the boy. The movie's otherworldly, uplifting end is a fascinating, dramatic counterpoint to the scary, sometimes violent story that precedes it.

What is particularly interesting about Nichol's film is how he chooses to parcel out expository information, which is always dispensed on a need-to-know basis. Without becoming bogged down in clunky, pace-hobbling, explication, Nichols keeps the audience wired by doling out discrete quanta of information about the characters and Alton's mission. Though the movie moves along at brisk clip, Nichols keeps the story and action tight.

Nichols collaborations with Shannon have been fruitful and succeeds again. It is an exceptional trick of casting to have Joel Edgerton; another actor known for his edgy performances, to play Shannon's sidekick. I was surprised to see Kirsten Dunst; I hadn't seen her in a film in some years but she holds her own against two dramatic stalwarts; Shannon and Edgerton.

I find distressing to learn Nichols' film is only playing in very select theaters. I never saw one advertisement or trailer for the film. How is such a terrific film supposed to find an audience when little care has been assigned its promotion? Is it because Shannon and Edgerton aren't Chris Hemsworth or Ryan Reynolds in the handsome hunk department? A major disservice has been done to this film. It deserves far better.

Like 10 Cloverfield Lane, Nichols' film appropriates a genre to tell a compelling and thrilling story. It moves along, never forgetting its audience and it rewards us for our attention. It promises and doesn't renege.

St. Vincent

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Theodore Melfi/Starring: Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Jaeden Lieberher, Terrence Howard and Chris O'Dowd

First time director Theodore Melfi's St. Vincent, which he also scripted, introduces a motley assemblage of potentially amusing characters, then quickly consigns them to situations and behaviors as readily packaged and ready to serve as vending machine candy bars. One could chart the story knowing only the characters, who are more archetypes than people: the crusty old slob who drinks and gambles too much and is hostile to his neighbors but has a heart of gold; the single, working mother who has just moved in next door and has a son who is bullied at school; the street-wise, struggling prostitute who services the old slob but has a heart of gold; and an underworld figure who is after said slob for a gambling debt but doesn't have a heart of the shiny, precious metal. The only character who doesn't come in a box happens to be the one we seldom see; a Catholic school brother/elementary school teacher with a mildly sarcastic sense of humor whose class is made up of Jews and agnostics, who are welcomed warmly. Can you already see where this story will go?

Bill Murray plays Vincent, a Vietnam veteran who spends his days at the track and on a bar-stool. His shabby life is interrupted one day by a single mother named Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) and her son Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher), who move in next door. The movers Maggie has hired accidentally knock a branch from Vincent's tree down onto the hood of his car. Vincent angrily demands compensation from Maggie, who is miffed at her neighbor's un-neighborliness.

As Maggie's hospital job leaves her son in a latch-key state, Vincent reluctantly allows Oliver to stay at his house after school but only for an agreed-upon wage he negotiates with Maggie. The moment Vincent and Oliver meet, we already know where the relationship will lead. We know Vincent will help Oliver with the bullying he faces at school and that irresponsible visits to the track and the bar will follow soon after. We also know that the symbolic father/son relationship will be beneficial for both as Vincent's parental instincts are roused and Oliver learns to stand up for himself.

The other story developments are as predictable. We know what will become of the Russian prostitute Daka; played by Naomi Watts, whose accent is as broad as the Mississippi River. It's almost a narrative imperative that Vincent will eventually help her and become a kind of surrogate husband.

The one character I had hoped to see more of was Chris O'Dowd's Brother Geraghty. He is fairly amusing the few times we see him and something funny always seems to spill out of his mouth. Terrence Howard plays Zucko, the man who threatens Vincent for welching on gambling debts. I can't imagine his role was imagined any further than his name. His character lacks humor, personality and even the requisite menace his line of work demands. He is barely there and I wondered if the best parts of the character ended up under a table in the editing room. Watts' accent grates after awhile and generates little humor.

Some scenes were genuinely funny and the film never strays far from its comedic tone. But it lacked the anarchic energy the preview promised. When we learn Vincent has a dementia-afflicted wife in a nursing home, what little edginess the film still has drips into a pool of sentimentality. It isn't enough that he helps Oliver's self-esteem or becomes his surrogate father or that he takes on Daka's problems too; he must be the saint the title demands he be. It doesn't exactly pain me to admit it, but saints are often a drag.

In the end, Vincent, Maggie, Daka, and Oliver come together to become a family of sorts. No surprise there.

If the film had been funny throughout, its sagging characterizations and story might have been made irrelevant. Comedic talents like Murray, McCarthy and O'Dowd can't quite distract us from the film's flaws. Maybe if Vincent had been more sinner than saint, the film might have established and maintained a comic edge.

I noticed the film was only playing in one theater in the area. Maybe industry barons Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the producers of St. Vincent, knew something about their own film that we unsuspecting ticket-buyers don't. Bob and Harvey, you should have trusted your instincts; you should have sent the flick straight to DVD. I know I would have conferred sainthood on you if you had.