The Vast of Night is a fantasy movie from Amazon that could have been shot in the 70s. last century. It echoes Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), is stylized after the classic series The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) and most of all resembles a radio show of one of the stories by Ray Bradbury.
End of the 50s. last century. The satellite has already been launched, but someone Yuri Gagarin has not even written a report with a request to enroll him in the group of astronaut candidates. The tiny town of Cayuga (472 residents), somewhere in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico, prepares for an extremely important event - a basketball match between the local school team and guests from a neighboring town. Almost the entire city has gathered in the gym to watch the game, and only a few are forced to return to work. These are 16-year-old Fay Crocker, who works as a city switchboard operator, and local radio DJ Everett Sloane, showing Fay how to use a portable voice recorder she recently bought.
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A few minutes after the start of the match, Fay hears an unusual signal on Everett's radio broadcast and literally immediately after that receives a call in which the same signal sounds. Fey and Everett are trying to figure out the origin of a strange sound and are attacking a trail of secrets that bind many people both in their town and beyond.
Review of the fantastic film The Vast of Night / "Endless Night"
The Vast of Night begins with a black and white picture on an ancient TV screen. Such stylization under The Twilight Zone, with which the authors will divide the film into conditional episodes, is not without reason here. Unlike most modern filmmakers trying to capture the spirit of the 80s and 90s on film. last century, Andrew Patterson, who was born in 1982 and is familiar with the time firsthand, is fascinated by an earlier period - 50-70 years.
To recreate the atmosphere of that time, Patterson approaches with downright manic attention. He is literally obsessed with the technique of that period, so in his film there is a lot of work with devices - switching switch channels, rewinding tape reels, clicking buttons and switches. The first fifteen minutes of the film is generally just pampering with a voice recorder. Everett enthusiastically clicks the buttons, forcing Fay to interview random passers-by, record his voice, say something into the microphone. The dictaphone is a novelty for Fairies and everyone around, a small technical miracle that amuses and entertains by the very fact of its existence.
This genuine admiration for a simple device perfectly captures the spirit of that time. As the conversations of teenagers convey it. They tell each other about their grandiose, in fact, quite mundane, as in a modern view, plans for adulthood. Fey enthusiastically retells Everett articles from popular science magazines that she recently read: about trains rushing through underground tunnels at a speed of 700-800 km / h; about cars that can be controlled using electrical signals; about small phones that you can carry with you, and when talking to see the face of your interlocutor. Surprisingly, in the USSR, almost the same sentiments existed 20 years later, at the end of the 70s.
The Vast of Night is a conversational film, essentially a radio play with a minimalistic visual that leaves room for the imagination. The dialogues here are really very good and it's better to listen to them in the original language. The main work in the film is taken on by two leading actors - Sierra McCormick (Faye Crocker) and Jake Horowitz (Everett Sloane). Moreover, McCormick, who had previously appeared in several youth sitcoms, in makeup and clothes of the 50s. not at all like herself.
The Vast of Night has a really minimalistic picture. All the events of the film take place at night in a poorly lit small town. All that the director allows himself is a few dashing scenes shot with one camera, for example, flying through the entire city in the middle of a film. There are no special effects here, or rather, almost none, but as for me, it would be better if there were none at all. At the very end of the picture, Andrew Patterson decides to show what Faye and Emerett have been chasing all night, and it seems to me that this is a wrong decision. Yes, this scene was needed to extend an additional bridge to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with which Patterson's tape echoes, but the empty night sky and only the very last frame included in the film would have made the ending much stronger.
The Vast of Night collected a whole bunch of awards at several independent film festivals and was warmly received by critics, but the audience did not appreciate the unhurried pace of the picture and the lack of action. Which, however, is not surprising. As mentioned above, this is a film originally from the 80s, then such films collected huge halls and earned good money, today such films do not shine at the box office, other times - different preferences. But on Amazon Prime Video, the film, its director and cast have all the chances to be noticed. For that alone, streaming services are well worth a thank you.
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