The heavens keep splitting to deliver forked tinsel masquerading as sci-fi lightning.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 28, 2016

Nichols does so many things so well, and all at once, that it sort of takes your breath away.

| Nov 17, 2016

There is an adrenaline-fueled elasticity to events that is as smooth as it is exhilarating, all of it given extra potency thanks to the emotional complexities driving things to their conclusion.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 11, 2016

Midnight Special is a film about fatherhood and faith, with sci-fi elements that are engrossing, mysterious, and will linger with viewers for a long time.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 2, 2016

Director Jeff Nichols has created a bleak world confronted with the real prospect of hope, but only if you let yourself believe in it.

| Apr 27, 2016

Riffing on John Carpenter's Starman, writer-director Jeff Nichols has crafted a sci-fi chase film whose gravely naturalistic style adds to its sense of portent.

| Apr 26, 2016

Weirder stuff begins happening, but that's best left to the movie's telling rather than mine.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 26, 2016

Nichols is a director who isn't afraid to leave questions unanswered. I left the cinema thinking a lot about what I saw.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 22, 2016

Nothing about this theme is particularly interesting or new, and it's still an open question how far Nichols can be ranked as an original creator as opposed to a prize pupil. Still, there's no doubting his craft and ambition.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 21, 2016

Overall, this is a tremendous film - narratively satisfying, visually striking, and with a teasing theological subtext, if that's your bag.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 10, 2016

This is a film that draws you in even as it perplexes you and that ultimately has a very strong emotional kick.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 8, 2016

The eventual release from oppression feels a little forced, but Midnight Special lays hooks that stay imbedded in anxious parts of the brain.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 8, 2016

Nichols has earned the right to take big leaps. Even if he doesn't stick the landing, it's a thrill watching him try. He, too, is something special.

| Original Score: B | Apr 8, 2016

Some films exist entirely on their own terms, while others benefit from a bit of backstory.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 7, 2016

Midnight Special starts strongly, and finishes nowhere very interesting.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 7, 2016

The shortcomings of Nicholls's movie help throw into sharp relief exactly what it was that Spielberg got so right.

| Apr 7, 2016

Nichols is the kind of director who favours the slow burn over the instant payoff, meaning that the high-tension, low-drama manner in which his modern-day parable unfolds makes the third-act fireworks even more dazzling.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 7, 2016

Soulful sci-fi. A tribute to '80s classics, but with a 21st-century twist: Close Encounters of a new kind.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 7, 2016

It all sounds terribly murky, but few filmmakers are as gifted at making you want to peer through the murk.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 1, 2016

What started with a gripping premise slackens and goes limp.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 1, 2016