Midnight Special

LANDON **1/2
I'm a big Jeff Nichols fan. I've only seen two of his previous three movies, but I loved both "Mud" and "Take Shelter."  I'm a little disappointed that "Midnight Special" doesn't quite join those ranks.  I was absolutely loving the first half of the film, with stellar performances from Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kiersten Dunst and Adam Driver.  As good as the second half still is, it gets pretty bizarre and loses some of the mysterious luster found in the first half.  Still a good film in it's own right. Just not as good as the fantastic "Mud" and "Take Shelter."

CHASE ***
One of the things that I applauded Jeff Nichols for is keeping me engaged throughout the majority of the movie.  There is a surprising number of sequences where it got really intense for me.  I feel like all the characters are very well rounded and Jaeden Lieberher, who played the gifted child, was just as good as any of the adult actors.  It's beautiful to look at and I like that this is something different than we're used to seeing Nichols do.  As for the second half of the movie, I think there are lot of good parts in it, the only thing that keeps me from loving it even more is the climax, which does feel a bit bizarre and it unfortunately reminded me too much of another movie.  Outside of that, it's really hard for me to fault the whole story and I still enjoyed it overall.

BRYCE **1/2

BANGERANG SCORE: **1/2