The Vast of Night (2019)'s comments

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Siskoid

I've seen many small SF/horror movies lately that are clear tributes to The Twilight Zone, but The Vast of Night really wears it on its sleeve, with a more overt reference right up top. Indeed, we often return to the odd free-standing cathode-tube screen over the course of the movie, and sometimes even go to a black frame, turning the film into radio. Perhaps an evocation of Orson Wells' War of the Worlds broadcast? This is, after all, a UFO story as seen through the eyes and ears of a radio disc jockey and a telephone operator in a sleepy 1950s town. A triumph of style over substance, there's a lot to admire in terms of recreating an era, letting the camera glide around town to create a clear geography, and letting the story play out as a kind of radio play. Think, if you can, of a mix between Signs and Pontypool. Unfortunately, it's not as clever or original as Pontypool, and I feel we're heading for an inescapable conclusion and not much of a twist at all. As a movie, it looks cool and takes chances. Its characters are good, especially Sierra McCormick who is quite convincing as a period teen. As a plot, it's rather generic, and the audience if forever ahead of the characters.

3 years 10 months ago

Ronet

Like a creatively illustrated engaging radio play. The musical score was just beautiful and the composers definitely deserve to be in the conversation come awards season.

3 years 9 months ago

BadFluffy

The third movie I see this week that might as well be a podcast and probably was. I guess it's a new genre.
No amount of filters, drone shots (that really are taking you out of the whole 50ies mood btw) and film student camera tricks can make an average plot feel more worth your time.
Multiple long long scenes with people describing events on the phone or the radio is the kind of things that make me go "show, don't tell!"
And when your entire plot is a mashup of classics of a genre with nothing new brought to it, the fact you are constantly referring to it doesn't absolve you of new content, new ideas or a new perspective.
There's a fine line between homage and plagiarism and winking while you clone something doesn't make it less plagiarism.

4 weeks ago