I almost saw Midnight Special in theaters because Michael Shannon stars in the film, but I did not because it seemed dominated by a male cast. I did not even know there was a female character in the film until I finally saw it. If I had known that Jeff Nichols, who directed Take Shelter and Mud, also directed Midnight Special, I may have taken my wallet out.
Midnight Special is about two men and a boy with powers who are on the run from the government and a cult and are desperately trying to reach a destination to insure the child’s safety. Midnight Special is ET meets Blood Simple with a more optimistic twist than Banshee Chapter meets Thale.
I would have preferred to see Midnight Special on the big screen because many of the night shots were indiscernible on the small screen. It felt like Midnight Special was aiming for an Unbreakable American mythology through comic books reference, but it did not work. I found the big reveal at the end anti-climatic and disappointing, particularly compared to Take Shelter.
I really enjoyed the way that Midnight Special’s story unfolded. The audience is dropped into the middle of the action and is expected to figure out what is happening as opposed to giving a character an unwieldy amount of pose to become a living breathing “previously on.” I enjoyed Midnight Special’s themes: ordinary people being unprepared for supernatural or unexplainable phenomenon in the modern world and suddenly reacting with extreme changes in behavior, the gritty determination and love of father hood in the face of devastating odds. It was nice to see some Nichols’ regulars in Midnight Special: Michael Shannon, Sam Shepard, Paul Sparks.
Even though I appreciate not being spoon fed information, Midnight Special had one too many unanswered questions.
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Michael Shannon joined the cult when he was a kid. What did the cult believe before Alton was born? Were Shannon and Kristen Dunst set up or did they fall in love? I’m inclined to believe the latter, but that seems unusual for a cult. The argument for the prior was the fact that Dunst did not seem to miss Shannon as much as he missed her. Did the head preacher always take kids or was it just Alton because Alton was special? Midnight Special never questions that Shannon and Dunst are Alton’s biological parents, but how did they have a transdimensional child? Nice little American take on a Nativity scene towards the end of Midnight Special. I have rewatched the final scene with Shannon, and the sun is in his eyes. He is not acting like Alton at all so I do not buy that he has some powers. It was not necessary, but I would have loved to find out what the government did to the cult’s henchmen. How is the government not aware of Kylo Ren’s role in the caper?
Midnight Special is still a solid movie, but the story is not as strong as it could be. Sometimes when a movie does not give you answers, you still feel like the filmmaker knows and are satisfied. I never felt like the conceivers of Midnight Special fully created the rules of this universe before making it story about it.