New Mexico? New Mexico?! Really? Wikipedia tells me the film is set in Cayuga, New Mexico. I sure didn’t see that one coming … kept looking for the clues, too. Hmmm, set in the town of Cayuga, that’s a Great Lakes thing. Radio station WTOW – well, that puts it east of the Mississippi. A high school basketball game being played in a climate that allows for short-sleeved blouses outdoors, even at night; that would suggest somewhere it doesn’t snow … hmmm. New Mexico answers to none of those.
Fine, you want to call it New Mexico; it’s New Mexico. I guess it fits the “Area 51” vibe that the film is giving off.
Over the course of one evening, extremely young switchboard operator Fay (Sierra McCormick) and extremely young DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz) have their own “X-Files” adventure. Actually, I suppose it’s supposed to be a “Twilight Zone” adventure as the film-in-a-film is introduced as an episode of “Paradox Theater” [read: “Twilight Zone”] in an era of black and white television.
The whole town has decided to take in the boys basketball game at the local circuit breaker. Everett seems to be the kind of guy everybody needs when technical questions are raised. During an Aaron Sorkin-like introduction, Everett seems to have run of the school and town if only because he’s the one who knows how to fix the scoreboard. But shortly into the Act I meet-n-greet, the film affixes Everett to Fay, who also seems to be at the basketball game for no reason. Why, film? Why did we start at the basketball game if we’re going to focus on the only two people within a fifty-mile radius who aren’t there? Did you want to educate us on the way basketball was before skill was invented? How many set shots and backdoor cuts does one need to see to be reminded this is the way the game was played in the 1950s?
Fay has a new tape recorder and spends her moments learning from Everett how to abuse it by playing the part of talk show host in the parking lot. Then the two split for their respective jobs: she a late night switchboard operator; he the dead time radio host nobody listens to … that is until *static*. Fay gets an odd transmission into her phone lines; she transfers it to Everett who puts it on the radio. Honestly, it sounds like static. But it’s night in the boonies and they’re alone in this small town and when a caller confirms the mysterious nature of the mysterical mysteriness, it leads to … more mystery. The Vast of Night isn’t a “show ‘n’ tell” film so much as an “atmosphere ‘n’ imagination” film, like The Blair Witch Project, or –perhaps closer to the subject matter here- The Night Listener.
The Vast of Night doesn’t offer much more than whatever your imagination might summon. It gets two great performances out of its leads – Sierra McCormick and Jake Horowitz – which we know because the film has asked the pair to carry the entire load here. These two put on a darn convincing acting clinic; I just wish this film didn’t feel so much like improv class. This film starts as a movie without a plot, and slowly morphs into a plot without an antagonist. I believe the phrase is “all hat, no cattle,” which should apply in the Great Lakes, New York, Florida, New Mexico, Pepperland, or wherever we are imagining this film is set.
The action here doesn’t make me ecstatic
I’d even settle for something erratic
Aliens, are you there?
Give me some reason to care
Wake me when there’s more than just static
Rated PG-13, 89 Minutes
Director: Andrew Patterson
Writer: James Montague, Craig W. Sanger
Genre: The mystery of mystery
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Humble aliens
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Action junkies
