Popular reviews

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  Review by Matt Singer ★★★ 6

  Really torn about this one. I think the use of this wild sci-fi chase as one big allegory for parenthood is really clever, but the family unit at the center of it all is really underdeveloped. Some of the scenes are very effective in both their suspense and their surprise, but others felt completely pointless. (Why watch Adam Driver “figure it out” if he never tells us what he found out and it ultimately didn’t matter whether he figured it out anyway?) Jeff Nichols’ previous films did a remarkable job of using genre trappings to explore rich and fascinating characters; Midnight Special feels way too wrapped up in its plotting and mysteries at the expense of its characters, something that…

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  Review by Evan ★★★ 18

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  As cliche as this is, there's absolutely nothing special about Midnight Special. The film is well-made, but the script is as scarce as water in the desert. There's just nothing to this movie. A kid has special powers, Michael Shannon "kidnaps" him and he has to get him somewhere. We have no idea how or why this boy has these powers. The majority of the movie takes place in a car. The performances weren't necessarily bad, everyone was just so flat. But the actors were literally given almost nothing to work with. There isn't much character interaction, so I literally didn't care about anyone in this film. There's also zero chemistry between father and son or between any characters for…

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  Review by karen h. 2

  nobody understands michael shannon’s innate tenderness like jeff nichols

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★ 25

  40/100

  Jeff Nichols's Midnight Special buries itself in secrets and a brooding, lucid sense of ambiguity, and it's exciting and unbalanced in equal measure. Carried by great performances (although Kirsten Dunst is sorely underused) and a truly hypnotic score, this sci-fi road-trip genre mix has its heart and mind in the right place, both as a late-70s/80s homage and a familial drama, but all of the mysteries never materialize in any satisfying form. Even worse is how the film lures the audience into reaching out for the ideas slightly beyond them even though there's no attempt of foundation or building the rules of its world. Jeff Nichols, at the very least, understands tone and committing to a singular, pulsating rhythm,…

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  Review by Serge The Movie Guy ★★★★★ 3

  Alton Meyer: Dad?

  Roy: Yeah?

  Alton Meyer: Are you scared?

  Roy: Yes.

  Alton Meyer: You don't have to worry about me.

  Roy: I like worrying about you.

  Alton Meyer: You don't have to anymore.

  Roy: I'll always worry about you Alton. That's the deal.

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★ 43

  Midnight Special begins in a dank motel room. The windows have been boarded shut. Nancy Grace spews an Amber Alert through the tinny speakers of the tube television in the corner. Roy (Michael Shannon) and Lucas (Joel Edgerton) are the kind of guys who would look like kidnappers even if they didn’t have a small boy stashed in the crevasse between the room’s two moldy beds. Alton (Jaeden Lieberher) sits on the floor with swimming goggles over his eyes, strangely docile and unperturbed for someone who’s meant to have been abducted; the kid hardly even seems to flinch when Roy yanks him into the backseat of his 1972 Chevelle. There’s no indication of where they’re going, but Lucas’ decision to…

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  Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★ 1

  59/100

  Textbook case of being consistently intrigued without ever really becoming involved. For some reason, the emotional core of this film seems to have gone missing—I can see where it's supposed to reside, but the love Alton's parents feel for him is oddly abstract, perhaps because E.T. seems more human than he does. Nichols' allergy to exposition fosters suspense, but it also means that the story's nonsensical elements (e.g. why does Alton need to be "kidnapped" if Dad is planning to take him to exactly the same location that the cult was, for the same reason?) get exposed en masse in the final reel. I felt let down, basically. But that's always a danger with speculative fiction, and if Nichols fails to stick the landing, at least he stays aloft as long as he possibly can.

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  Review by wmllmw ★★★★ 8

  Jeff Nichols is our savior from run-of-the-mill studio movies.

  This is a film for the people who like not being spoon-fed every bit of information. This is for the people who don't mind being in the dark. This film is for the mysterious. This film is great.

  Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, and Kirsten Dunst. Terrific.
  This was also the first time that Adam Driver hasn't bothered the crap out of me in a movie.

  The less you know, the better. I'd say more, but I'm going to be careful and run no risk of spoiling anything.

  Nichols best film since his masterpiece 'Take Shelter'.

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  Review by Tasha Robinson ★★★★ 2

  Really enjoyed this road-movie flashback to the 1980s, equal parts Firestarter and E.T. with Close Encounters Of The Third Kind thrown in. But I wish it had a little more of the Jeff Nichols-specific magic to it, the depth of emotion and richness of writing that's defined his other movies. Nichols has admitted himself that he may have cut too much from this film to keep the story as cohesive as it should have been. In the end, I wanted his full version of the story, in novel form, spelling out all the things he glided over, as much as I wanted this film.

  Full review for The Verge here.

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  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★ 4

  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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  Review by demi adejuyigbe ★★★★ 1

  Man. I'm so impressed with Jeff Nichols as a director. He's GREAT at "show, don't tell" which seems like a side effect of the film scene in Austin, as it was certainly something they stressed when I was down there. This movie is a mystery, and it's meant to be, but I think it left me with more questions than I came in with. Michael Shannon is great as always, but it's hard to tell who else gave a great performance because everybody says maaaaybe ten words each?

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  Review by Gonzo ★★★ 12

  ▶ 2016 Movie Rankings

  Is it good?
  It's okay.

  What is this Midnight Special about?
  It's basically sort of a superhero movie. Actually, I'd say it's more of a "superpower" movie.

  I like superhero movies. Will I enjoy this?
  This one's a lot more grounded and a lot less action-packed than your usual Marvel/DC blockbuster fare. Right now, the closest comps I could think of (in terms of style and genre) is Unbreakable and Chronicle. Tonally, it's closer to the former, but overall, the film doesn't share much similarities to either of the two. It's actually closer to E.T., only more mature and violent (although blood is rarely shown and most of the violence is implied and done off-screen). And…