The Vast of Night isn't quite hard sci-fi, but it's pretty close. Somewhere in small-town New Mexico in the late 50's, a teenage switchboard operator and an early-20's local AM station* DJ investigate... something strange in the sky. Without throwing out any spoilers, the most that can be said is that: (1) this flick has atmosphere in spades; (2) which is good, because the story is a little thin; and (3) yes, there is a conclusion, a payoff, for the viewer at the end. Watching it, I kept worrying that the weirdness would all blow over by dawn's early light, but no, there's a there there. And oh, that atmosphere, it's so thick you could cut it with a ray-gun. Sometimes it feels more late 40's, sometimes events place it in the late 50's, but the precise year doesn't matter. Finally, the long camera shots alone are worth the ticket price.
Here, watch the trailer and soak up some of the atmosphere. That alone will be enough to tell if you'll enjoy the rest:
This one was a lot of edge-of-chair fun. As I mentioned, the story was somewhat thin, but the look and feel was dialed up to 100%. 3 out of 4 stars.
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*Nerd Note: What is a radio station west of the Mississippi doing with a "W" call sign? The real WOTW is an FM station in central Florida. It's little details like this that kept the movie from being *just right* and more like *close*.
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