Movie Review: The Vast of Night (English)

Set in the 1950s, the fictional New Mexico town of Cayuga forms the backdrop for this absorbing, retro sci-fi charmer The Vast of Night, the debut feature from director Andrew Patterson. It's night time and everyone is heading to the neighbourhood's big basketball game except for two high school kids Everett and Fay, who leave the crowded venue to get down to their respective late jobs: He hosts a nightly radio show on WOTW (a nod to H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, subtly foreshadowing what's to come later), and she operates the town switchboard. But it's not long before Fay notices a cryptic, stuttery interference in the radio signals, leading the duo to embark on a nocturnal mystery about its less than earthly origins, even as it deftly intertwines the extraterrestrial (There's something in the sky!) with themes of Cold War paranoia and the Space Race between the U.S. and the erstwhile Soviet Union. Boasting of incredible sound design (there are passages where it audaciously cuts to a black screen, forcing the audience to pay more attention to the dialogue) and inventive tracking shots, Patterson mounts a stylish puzzle while keeping a firm control over the narrative, at the same time steadily drip-feeding information via well-timed reveals right up until the jaw-dropping ambiguous finale.