“Midnight Special” is the latest evolution from writer/director Jeff Nichols, whose movies have slowly yet surely gotten a little bigger and a little more ambitious as he grows as an artist. Here he ventures into some science fiction territory to tell a story about faith and religion, but also about a father and son, and while having huge implications, this is still in many ways a small indie thriller road movie, just with a couple of bigger scenes thrown in for good measure.
Right when the movie starts, everyone is looking for an 8-year old boy named Alton (Jaeden Lieberher). He’s a special kid with some sort of powers, and he’s being tracked down by both the government and a cultish group living in a place simply called The Ranch. Taking him from a small town in Texas to a mysterious location is his father Roy (Michael Shannon) and Roy’s old friend Lucas (Joel Edgerton), and they are taking numerous seemingly cumbersome precautions in transporting this kid until you find out why they are doing what they do. This is the kind of movie that works in a lot of ambiguity and mystery and takes its time to explain things, even then only doing so with just enough information without being burdensome, still leaving enough up in the air to get the imagination to fill in some of the little gaps.
