Dir. Andrew Patterson. 89 minutes.
4/5
A mystery with supernatural overtones unfolds in a small American town in the 1950s. While most of the inhabitants of Cayuga, New Mexico, are gathered for a basketball game, a lone telephone switchboard operator (Sierra McCormick) and a radio DJ (Jake Horowitz) investigate a mysterious sound appearing on the airwaves — possibly of Russian, or even extraterrestrial, origin.
“The Vast of Night,” Andrew Patterson’s no-budget debut film, is a non-revisionist trip back to the Eisenhower era, when Coke came in green glass bottles and high technology consisted of a handheld tape recorder. Lingering long takes and expertly paced dialogue build a highly absorbing, yet low-key, mood of mystery and tension. Think of it as “The X-Files” by way of Archie Comics. “The Vast of Night” is also pretty family-friendly — its PG-13 rating seems due mainly to its all-pervasive smoking.
Our teenaged heroes investigate the spooky signal using what communications and recording equipment their era had to offer. Patterson seems intent on reminding us of a time when we were full of naive enthusiasm for the inventions that would connect us all together: radio, cameras, “tiny TV telephones” and other gadgetry. The film’s underdeveloped climax doesn’t really live up to the promise of its beginnings, but it’s still well worth an hour and a half to watch. And at least it doesn’t undermine itself with try-hard plot twists like so much recent sci-fi.
