"A
science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a
human problem and a human solution, which would not have happened at
all without its scientific content.”
Theodore Sturgeon
The
German pioneer of fantastic literature E.T.A. Hoffmann once said that
the author must offer the reader a ladder where he can climb by
himself from the reality to another fantastic world. This sentence
about fantastic literature is still useful for cinema and like in
this case for science fiction films.
The
film begins like a thriller: two men and a young boy are
escaping in the middle of the night with a car. The only strange
thing is that the boy has special strange looking glasses. They drive by nights and
like so often in films with Road Movie elements, the story is
enfolded during a journey. The fantastic elements develops from real
landscapes, highways, country roads, service stations and strange
houses in the middle of nowhere. When they drive by night, the
mysterious boy reads super hero comics. In contrast to the invincible
super heroes the boy who has as well supernatural abilities remains a child
who is scared. As the story enfolds we learn about that this group. The men
are Roy the boy Alton´s father and Lucas, a friend of Roy since
school. They are hunted by religious fanatics who see in Alton a
kind of Messiahs but they are hunted as well by FBI, NSA and CIA who consider
Alton´s abilities as a thread for national security.
Like
in the first long film by Jeff Nichols Shotgun Stories or in his previous Mud,
outbreaks of violence happen like an explosion. During their escape
a police man is shot, later two men of this religious sect are
shooting at Roy and Lucas. These are short and ugly moments and
nothing seems to be stylized.
It
is also a family story, because they meet later in the film Alton´s
mother who once abandoned the child. Like in his wonderful Take
Shelter (which has also a slight science fiction element in the
character´s apocalyptic night mares), the composition of family
drama in Take Shelter and Midnight Special, the adventure or science
fiction elements in Take Shelter, Mud or again Midnight Special are
sometimes fusing together, another time they keep a certain
independency from each other. That makes it difficult to point the
finger on the special magic in the films by Jeff Nichols. And it is
not easy to say where exactly Nichols set a certain effect or where
this effects results from the “ladder of E.T.A.Hoffmann” - or in
other words - is the cross point between inspiring moments of
this film and our own imagination?
For
my side a key moment in the films by Jeff Nichols is the end of Take
Shelter. We finally accepted that Michael Shannon´s character is
mentally ill and paranoid, his visions of an apocalyptic storm a
delusion. But than when he plays peacefully with his daughter on a
beach, scaring clouds announce the destructive natural catastrophe from his night mares. But the actual moment which left me
breathless is this glance from Shannon to Jessica Chastain and her
confirming nod back to him.
Nichols
never gives the mystery away, he rather give hints and small
suggestions.
It
is characteristic that a big part of Midnight Special takes place in the
darkness of the night and in some moments it is hard to recognize
anything.
And
again Michael Shannon offers an adorable performance. Here his
character is a likely lost and introverted man but again very
credible as a common man and there must be some truth in in when
Wenders once said that “American actors are minimalists by nature”.
But it seems in all films and TV series I have seen with Shannon, he
is never as fascinating like in Jeff Nichols´ films, Other try to let
him act, Nichols let him be.
Even
though the film has a fantastic showdown rather unusually for Nichols
even this opulence does not harm the mystery atmosphere. Like Take
Shelter, Midnight Special ends with an expression in Michael
Shannon´s face and that is only one of many things which will stay with
me. I think there is no need to repeat the frequent comparison
between Nichols and America´s finest living director Terrence
Malick. But there is a quote from David Fincher on Malick: “a
cinema outside of Hollywood but very American in its sensitivity”.
That does not only describe Malick but in other ways directors like
James Benning, Richard Linklater or Matt Porterfield and it is also a
good hint to the films of the young American filmmaker Jeff Nichols.
Rüdiger
Tomczak
Screenings:
Sat,
13.Feb Haus der Berliner Festspiele 11.00
Sat,
13, Feb Friedrichstadt Palast 12.00
Sat
13 Feb Haus der Berliner Festspiele 21.30
On my list ! Thanks Rudiger !
ReplyDeleteOn my list ! Thanks Rudiger !
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