Midnight Special
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Midnight Special |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2016 |
| length | 112 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jeff Nichols |
| script | Jeff Nichols |
| production |
Sarah Green , Brian Kavanaugh-Jones |
| music | David Wingo |
| camera | Adam Stone |
| cut | Julie Monroe |
| occupation | |
| |
Midnight Special is an American science fiction film directed by Jeff Nichols from the year 2016 . The leading roles are played by Michael Shannon , Joel Edgerton , Kirsten Dunst , Adam Driver and Jaeden Lieberher . The film premiered on February 12, 2016 at the Berlin International Film Festival , where it was competing for the Golden Bear .
action
Roy escapes a religious cult in rural Texas with his eight-year-old son Alton, who has superhuman powers. A missing person report for the boy is broadcast on television and radio to track down the boy. Roy and his accomplice - a childhood friend, State Trooper Lucas - attempt to get Alton to a classified position by a certain date. An extraordinary and perhaps world-changing event is to take place there.
While driving through less inhabited areas of the state at night, the three of them get involved in a car accident and shoot a statetrooper. They seek refuge with Eden, a former member of the religious cult. At the same time, the FBI questions the cult members on their search for Alton. Paul Sevier leads interrogations in which some of Alton's followers describe supernatural abilities. They say that the boy has to be awake at night because he is unable to live in daylight. The sermons of the church cult are based on the statements of Alton and contain encrypted government information which is sent by satellites.
Roy and Lucas leave their friend's house and have to stop at a gas station. There the boy uses his powers to pull a satellite out of orbit. This ignites in the atmosphere and rains on the area as a meteorite. They escape and meet Sarah, Alton's mother, who was excluded from the cult and has not seen her son for two years. On the street, Alton senses the FBI air patrol is looking for him and forces the community to stop. He runs into the forest and his father follows him. The two are hiding there. Sarah and Lucas are waiting in a motel. The boy is weakened by an uncontrolled incidence of light rays emitted by his eyes. He explains to his father that he has to watch the sunrise. While the two look at the sun, the earth begins to shake and a dome of light envelops them.
When Alton and Roy arrive at the motel, he is used to the sunlight. He explains that he found out where he was from. There is another world on our earth, only in a layer above. He would come from this world and there would be people there who were like him. When the four of them left the door of the motel room the next morning, the prophesied day, they were taken by surprise by two cult members. They kidnap Alton, but her car is thrown into an FBI roadside check and Alton is flown into a government facility.
The eight-year-old is questioned by Sevier and reveals his powers to him. In doing so, he convinces the analyst that he is from another world, and Sevier agrees to bring Alton to his parents. They meet in a remote location and Lucas handcuffs Sevier, which he puts on himself. So it gives the impression that he was forced to bring Alton to them. Roy, Lucas and Sarah plan to arrive at the designated location in Florida. Unfortunately, the FBI also knows where they are going and is sealing off the area with the help of the military. After driving through military roadblocks, they reach the place in the middle of nowhere. Sarah and Alton escape from the car and continue on foot so that Lucas and Roy can distract the pursuers with the car.
The mother and son reach the beginning of a swampy grassy landscape, where the ground begins to shake and an explosion of light spreads from the boy. This forms a vault around most of the southeastern part of the USA. Otherworldly buildings and futuristic architecture suddenly appear within this area. All persons within the light hemisphere are amazed and fascinated by the works of the parallel dimension. Sarah sees beings that resemble her son come out of the forest and envelop him like rays of light. The subsequent implosion of the skylight dome makes Alton, as well as the other world and its reflection, disappear.
Roy and Lucas were arrested by the government and interrogated by the FBI. Lucas tells exactly what happened, but that's not enough. Sevier is called in as a specialist because the other FBI members do not know that he helped accomplish Alton's mission. Sarah cuts and dyes her hair to avoid being spotted. The film ends with the imprisoned Roy wearing EEG electrodes on his head. His eyes light up briefly with a vanishing bright light.
criticism
On Rotten Tomatoes , the film received a critical rating of 84% based on 184 reviews and an average rating of 7.3 / 10. On Metacritic , Midnight Special achieved a Metascore of 78/100 based on 7 reviews.
Christian Ihle ( taz ) writes: “It's really nice to see a film again that does not constantly explain to the viewer what it is about & what they are currently seeing, but instead allows them to gradually get an idea of the To create a whole. "For Ihle, the film seems" almost like a homage "to films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind or ET , although it is not decisive enough:" On the one hand, too bad a family film, on the other hand in the chases and the mystery Whispers clearly stuck in the genre - to an end that even James Cameron could not have gotten 'bigger' in The Abyss and leaves the viewer puzzling but also disinterested. "
Jan Schulz-Ojala and Christian Schröder from Tagesspiegel call Midnight Special “higher hocus-pocus”, the film falls short of its claim. Nichols wants to build on his previous film Take Shelter by locating it in "exactly the borderline psycho-reality" and "wants to go beyond it at the same time". Which, however, fails precisely because "because he pushes with all his might, yes, sometimes penetratingly into the American pictorial elysium". In their conclusion, the critics sum up the "increasingly bizarre drama" for themselves: "A bit of bumming noise, some rather unexciting boah-ey special effects and many cuddly family values, which mostly stick with Kirsten Dunst as a mom"
Web links
- Official website of the film
- Midnight Special in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Midnight Special . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF).
- ↑ Midnight Special at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- ↑ Midnight Special at Metacritic (English)
- ^ Christian Ihle: Berlinale; L'avenir with Isabelle Huppert, Midnight Special with Michael Shannon. The daily newspaper , February 18, 2016, accessed on February 19, 2016 .
- ↑ Jan Schulz-Ojala and Christian Schröder: Midnight Special: A strange drama. Der Tagesspiegel , February 12, 2016, accessed on February 19, 2016 .