THE VAST OF NIGHT
OUT NOW (PRIME VIDEO) CERT TBC / 91 MINS
DIRECTOR Andrew Patterson
CAST Jake Horowitz, Sierra McCormick
PLOT 1950s New Mexico. Young switchboard operator Fay (McCormick) and small-town radio DJ Everett (Horowitz) tune into a strange audio frequency that could be a clue to an alien invasion.
IF THIS WERE 2015, there is a very goodwould have landed first-time feature director Andrew Patterson a off-shoot, a anthology film or at least a high-profile Super Bowl commercial. Told with assurance, style and grace, Patterson’s low-budget marvel — it was paid for by money the filmmaker made from commercials — mashes up sci-fi paranoia, the beginnings of TV, teen character studies and the golden age of radio into a seamless, completely cinematic cocktail. It acts simultaneously as a brazen calling card yet is also controlled, mature, and in its final moments strangely melancholic and moving.
