The Vast of Night

Be it War of the Worlds, Twilight Zone or The Day the Earth Stood Still, this science fiction romp through a small fictional New Mexico town pays homage to them all. A fun little romp that even tips it's cap to Close Encounters. For those that crave lots of action, look elsewhere; for those of you who like a story and will allow it to develop, you won't be disappointed. This is a small cast gem.

I thought it was well acted and the story well told, it could have been about 30 mins longer, slightly slicker in the way 80s movies set in the 50's were made with a bit more background to the characters or a plot twist.

Nowhere near as polished or as captivating as Fire in the Sky or Close Encounters but thats not a negative.

Anyone who likes the old Twilight Zones or good old fashioned storytelling will appreciate this so that rules out anyone with a short attention span or those that prefer big explosions and stunt action type movies.

This, for me, was a near perfect film. Although Its subject matter was of little interest to me, everything else from the score , the lighting the editing AND the magnificent performances were beautiful. The best i've seen for a while. It was a film with so much mood i was mesmerized after the initial 5 (annoying) minutes and was transfixed till the very end. Go see this little gem.

My wife and I watched this on Amazon streaming via Roku. It is set in New Mexico but filmed digitally in Texas and Oklahoma.

It looks like the late 1950s, when I was a young teenager, and they mention Sputnik which was a 1957 event. The movie opens with an extended scene at night of local residents going to the school gym for a basketball game, just to set the mood of the time, and it all feels authentic.

But things get going when the teenage girl goes to her job as phone switchboard operator and her good friend, a slightly older guy, goes to his music and talk show at the tiny local radio station. Some electricity goes out, some phone calls get disconnected, some strange sounds are heard, coming from the skys, and recorded. All leading up to a strong belief that alien beings are in the sky.

The movie is interesting and very well made, considering it had a tight budget and a short shooting schedule. The dialog is mostly interesting and the main actors are very good in their roles. It all takes place at night on one day which adds to the mystique.

Whoever thought it was a good idea to have the main character mumble unintelligible lines past a cigarette in his mouth for the film's first 15 minutes is an idiot. I was ready to turn it off, but then read a review here that mentioned that the first 15 minutes are difficult, so I kept watching. A person could skip the first 15 minutes entirely and not lose anything except finding out that the two main characters are a DJ and the town's switchboard operator. And that there's a big basketball game that is not really related to the rest of the plot. Worth watching in a pinch, like if you just can't find anything else you feel like watching right then.