Coming from the spooky lands of Amazon Prime comes The Vast of Night, an atmospheric movie set in the 1950s where a small town begins to experience some unusual, potentially alien, occurrences. The Vast of Night has a lot going for it: it has a lot of mood, a lot of tone, a lot of fancy camera work, a lot of long takes where actors can chew into a lot of dialogue. However, even with all of this muchness, the movie never really seems to elevate.
The Vast of Night is more accomplished than films with higher budgets. Director Andrew Patterson and DP M.I. Littin-Menz have a command of visual language, quite amazing when you consider this film takes place at night. The composition of the shots is really lovely, especially when the camera slows down to frame it’s actors in moments of intense emotion. Speaking of actors, I am sure they jumped for joy when they read this script as this movie has to be up there in words per minute and they tear into them with gusto. Sierra McCormick and Jake Horowitz are winning anchors to this film, embodying the call center and radio host roles with panache and verve. The MVPs of this movie are Gail Cronauer and Bruce Davis, who are tasked with long monologues of people who may have experience with unnatural phenomena. Both actors are not just telling the character’s stories, but imbuing these moments with incredible character work. This is all the more impressive when you consider Bruce Davis is never seen, it’s entirely voice work.
Even though this movie has many solid elements, outside of those two monologue moments and the opening scenes at the gym, The Vast of Night never quite achieves the heights its searching for. When the movie slows down for its emotional beats, it soars, but when it starts moving, the results are mixed because it feels like the movie wants to show off. It also doesn’t help that the framing device, the scifi tv show the movie cuts to multiple times and hints at it being, doesn’t offer much in the way of anything. The Vast of Night has a strong sense of conviction about everything else it presents, and this device rings hollow, which is unfortunate because it truly does keep the movie from feeling like something special.