THE VAST OF NIGHT: Here Are The Theatrical And Digital Dates For Andrew Patterson's Thrilling Debut

In the twilight of the 1950s, on one fateful night in New Mexico, a young, winsome switchboard operator Fay (Sierra McCormick) and charismatic radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz) discover a strange audio frequency that could change their small town and the future forever. Dropped phone calls, AM radio signals, secret reels of tape forgotten in a library, switchboards, crossed patchlines and an anonymous phone call lead Fay and Everett on a scavenger hunt toward the unknown.

...Patterson moves between moments of listening, where the story builds and a conspiracy slowly revealed to two young peole who don't know what to do with such knowledge, and frantic moments that both harken back to films about the cold war and conspiracies and films about what lies beneath (or on this case above) a seemingly sleepy small town). With a strong script at its base, Patterson layers on the sense of space and time, both immediate and metaphorical, to understand those immediate and metaphorical dangers that come from the possibility of knowing that indeed, the aliens have landed in this ordinar town.

 

...the script, performances, and deceptively complex use of long takes and drone shots make The Vast of Night one of the most accomplished films of the year, one that takes a story we think we've seen before, and gives us fresh eyes to see it with, and more importantly, fresh ears to hear it with.