The Vast of Night (2020)

User Review

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  d_riptide

  9 / 10

  Yet another up and coming director grabs me by the balls and earns my full undivided attention thanks to a brilliantly stylized and immersive sci-fi portrait in Andrew Patterson’s “The Vast Of Night”. What starts as a cute but riveting Twilighy Zone parody quickly shifts focus and turns into a smart and vigorous back-to-basics sci-fi noir flick that not only makes bold retro science fiction feel startlingly fresh again but also heightens a slow and cerebral connection on ideas past its periodical trappings. This movie is packed to the brim with a couple of memorable “How the hell did they shoot that” camera stunts that knocks the viewer out of the movie entirely by calling attention to its own showmanship while the directing and pacing sets a burgeoning mood for the tone early on, the 50s setting was convincingly established with wonderful antique props and vintage outfits to set the scene and rapid-fire dialogue that I adored, both the musical score, set design and production values were of the highest quality, Sierra McCormick and Jake Horowitz deliver very charismatic performances with riveting chemistry and it’s ‘messages’ about governments trying to cover things up from the general public and a general disdain for dishonesty aren’t technically unheard of and neither is the commentary about inequality....some of which unfortunately doesn’t benefit from a predictable outline and a confusing climax. ⁣
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  There’s an art to creating a project as simply complex as this and many films have accomplished this in the past. Patterson though gets a special mention though because this proves how low budget, high concept ideas have a more profound lasting impact on us and will continue to do so, those that follow similarly to this film.

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