[THE VAST OF NIGHT opens in northeast Ohio on Friday May 15th at The Mayfield Road Drive-in in Chardon, the Elm Road Drive-in in Warren, and the Magic City Drive-in in Barberton.]
Review by Bob Ignizio
While THE VAST OF NIGHT is set in the 1950s, its
themes are just as relevant today as they ever were. On the surface, the film
is about two small town teenagers – radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz) and switchboard
operator Fay (Sierra McCormick) – trying to track down the origins of a
mysterious radio signal that interferes with both the phone system and Everett’s
broadcast. What it really seems to be about, though, are small town fears. Both
the fear of being stuck in a place where you don’t belong and don’t see much
future, and the opposite but equal fear of leaving that place, no matter how
stifling it might be.
Director Andrew Patterson, working from a script by James
Montague and Craig W. Sanger, allows his film to unfold at a leisurely pace. Not
only does that give us plenty of time to get to know our two leads and the
world they inhabit, but it allows the mystery and suspense to build slowly and
naturally. There’s talk of UFOs and possible alien abductions, and a subplot
about a government cover-up that touches on our nation’s legacy of racism. But
Patterson plays it subtle, and doesn’t try to juice things up with contrived
action or peril. There is a satisfying (albeit ambiguous) payoff in the end, but it’s far from the
sort of climax one would find in a more mainstream film.
