Movie Details
| Title: | The Vast of Night | |
| Director: | Andrew Patterson | |
| Year: | 2019 | |
| Genre: | Science Fiction | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 09.24.19 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 09.24.19 | Alamo South Lamar | This Screening is part of event: FantasticFest 2019 One of my favs of the fest. This is a black and white low budget sci-fi film fashioned after a Twilight Zone episode (they even have a fake tv show in the same vein as the intro to the film) where a radio DJ and phone operator in a 50s small town encounters strange signals and sightings of something in the night sky. There are a lot of really long takes, some excellent steadicam or drone work and great performances by the two leads who have to say a lot of dialogue really quickly while using vintage technology like reel-to-reel players and operator switchboards. My only two nitpicks are that it goes in and out of the "you're watching this on tv" thing once too often and something about the quality of the black and white felt flat or dull. I think it was an intentional choice, again going for the feel of watching it on an old B&W tv, but it was a tiny bit distracting. There were also periods (during another long monologue where the audience and the radio DJ are listening to a guy on the phone) where the picture cuts out completely. It had a kind of hypnotic effect where at first I wasn't sure if it was the movie or my eyes taking long blinks or what, but it's kind of an odd choice. Maybe it's to treat it almost as a radio play? i dunno. Other than that, I really loved this one. I thought the characters were snappy and they handled an unsettling escalation really well with no CGI. Good stuff. |
