The Vast Of Night Movie Review
Nathan Swank
July 29th, 2020
‘Less is more’ is a familiar motto that proves its worth time and time again. An Amazon original, THE VAST OF NIGHT is a perfect example of how greatness can be accomplished with minimal production.
Set in the 1950’s in a small country town on a Friday night, where everyone is attending the local high school basketball game, two students discover an eerie audio frequency that could alter their lives forever.
Sophomore Fay (Sierra McCormick) is a switchboard operator and senior Everett (Jake Horowitz) is radio DJ. The two are about the only people not attending the basketball game as they each are walking to their respective after school jobs. Director Andrew Patterson magnificently creates time and space as the camera tracks the two kids walking and talking from the high school gym through blocks of the outside twilight evening in their small town to their respective work spaces. I love the sense of knowing exactly how everything is laid out within this town. From an audience perspective, it’s breathable in a completely immersive sense. I felt as though I was transported into a year and place, to which I should have no reasonable knowledge of, but somehow knew everything about it. The ability to bring an audience into this simple time is not only impressive, but inspiring.
Fay working the operator switchboard and Everett on-air in his little radio station room not only tells the story and moves the plot in a necessary way, but it also educates the viewer by teaching a bit of history. Personally, I get a kick seeing how people use phones or the inner workings of a radio station in a time of history that has gone nearly obsolete. I spoke earlier about the minimal production, but make no mistake, the art direction and set design are absolutely incredible.
But perhaps the most successful aspect about THE VAST OF NIGHT is the sense of mood it evokes. There is a haunting presence that is chill inducing as the story progresses. This is mostly done through conversation and story told either by a voice on a phone line (Bruce Davis) or an uncomfortable in-person interview (Mabel Blanche). Rated PG-13 at a runtime of 91 minutes, THE VAST OF NIGHT is an impressive feat on how to quietly thrill a large demographic using a minimalist approach.
Both young actors, McCormick and Horowitz, are at ease on camera and completely natural with their long stretch of dialogue. That goes doubly for filmmaker Andrew Patterson and his co-screenplay writer, Craig W. Sanger, who has a real sense of story telling by creating characters and the world they inhabit. I look forward to seeing what everyone of these talents will do for future projects.
Streaming services putting out original content have steadily been making a huge splash in the movie business. This little pandemic has helped that business as theaters and theatrical content have been required to take a hiatus. THE VAST OF NIGHT is easily one of the best films of the year and is available on Amazon.
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