The Vast of Night [2019]
“Did you recognize the sound we played on the radio tonight?”
2019’s The Vast of Night is one of those films that will make you believe in the magic of film all over again. While it’s certainly not one that everyone will love, and it isn’t without its oddities, Andrew Patterson and Craig W. Sanger have created something that I can only describe as “Spielbergian”. In the same way that he has created a legacy of films attributable to no one but him, Patterson and Sanger seem to have tapped into a similar vein and have made something truly unique and well worth celebrating.
During a local basketball game, radio jockey, Everett Sloan, and switchboard operator/ radio hopeful, Faye Crocker, hear and experience something they can’t explain. Through calls to the station and interactions with locals, the duo learn that something strange is certainly afoot. By the end of the night, as families stream out of the gymnasium’s overhead lighting and into the darkness beyond, Everett and Faye’s investigation will have led them to experience something truly out of this world.
Featuring some stunningly inventive single-take shots, rampant dialogue, and well researched period influences, The Vast of Night is a film that will stay in your mind long after the credits roll. Behind the camera, M.I. Littin-Menz brings the small town of Cayuga to stunning life while Patterson’s directorial vision and editorial prowess wrap this delicately simple tune into a package you’ll wish you opened sooner. Accompanying all of this wonderful flavor is a striking, haunting, and enchanting score by Erick Alexander and Jared Bulmer that you'll want to listen to over and over again. Vast is most closely relatable to both 2016’s Midnight Special – with its pure, classic science fiction tones – and 2011’s Super 8 in presentation. Both of those films illicit senses of awe, suspense, dread, and wonder that many films simply seem to miss nowadays. I could not be more pleased to say that The Vast of Night hits all those bases nearly perfectly.
As a whole, the film is not without flaw. Featuring what I’d call one or two too many ideas, there are a few artistic choices who’s meaning I that may be difficult to parse and will turn some viewers away. These are completely forgivable and even interesting, however, when viewed under the lens of a debut film, and this is the only mention of them I think is necessary. The promise of greatness that Patterson and Sanger have shown with this opening act of their careers is a truly fine breath and inspires in me a hope for the future of sci-fi cinema. Between them, Jeff Nichols [Midnight Special, Take Shelter], and the duo behind 2018’s Freaks – Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein – science fiction has a bright, strange, and meaningful future.
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The ideas in question are the use of scantron style “this page left intentionally blank” moments and what seem like television show chapter markers sprinkled throughout the film. On an initial watch I was intrigued by their inclusion and I appreciated their artistic reach, though I wasn’t sure they really added anything to the experience. Upon showing the film to my sister, however, she pointed out that their purpose was to show that we rarely understand that we’re living through what will be come a revolutionary event.
While I’m not sure that’s what I think the extended moments of blank screen mean, it’s clearly what the intent behind each of the instances of the Twilight Zone-esque TV side-bars. We’re seeing some rendition of the events from an unknown future that has clearly been touched by the events of the night we’re currently viewing.
While it was a little jarring and difficult to parse for me on an initial take, it’s actually pretty darn brilliant in hindsight. Excellent filmmaking.
The Vast of Night brings back the same magic and oddness that The Twilight Zone did so many years ago. It’s a wonderful, personal story about two people learning that the world is a little larger – a little stranger – than the familiar beats and dust encrusted streets of their hometown. In some ways it’s a simple film constructed masterfully. In other ways, it’s a masterful film that examines the simple beauty and wonder that science fiction has instilled in so many of us over the years. As a debut film, this is a triumph. As a film at large, it is a memorable entry into an otherwise crowded genre. As a personal project, it is clearly a love story to the stories and filmmakers that came before it. I truly cannot wait for more from these two creators, and I genuinely look forward to what our universe holds that only they can see.
“I listen to your broadcast every night. I think you're very good and I hope you can get far away from here.”
