10 Best Indie Movies Of 2016 (So Far)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

Take Shelter and Mud director Jeff Nichols carried on his streak of form earlier this year with Midnight Special, a low-budget sci-fi with a concept worthy of a mainstream blockbuster. The film follows Roy (Nichols' go-to guy Michael Shannon) and his young son as they flee from local, and then federal officers after they discover that the boy has special powers.

This movie is built on Spielbergian sentiment in many respects (a child with an otherworldly secret being chased by faceless government officials) and it is blessed with an embarrassment of talent in terms of cast, though where it differs from its mainstream counterparts is in the conclusion, or lack thereof.

With every answer comes multiple new questions, and those expecting things to be wrapped up neatly should go into Midnight Special knowing that this isn't how Nichols operates. While this is the closest thing to a genre film the director has done to date, it still follows a similar path to his previous work in that the real story is that of the characters themselves, with the world around them just a backdrop.

He certainly seems to be paying homage to a number of sci-fi classics (Close Encounters and Starman in particular), but Nichols is more interested in exploring the humanity of his characters rather than creating an otherworldly spectacle.