10 Surprisingly Awesome 2020 Movies You Probably Missed
1. The Vast Of Night
Despite being released on Amazon Prime last summer and receiving near-universal critical acclaim, you'd barely know The Vast of Night exists considering how little it's being talked about in even film enthusiast circles.
A gorgeously crafted low-fi sci-fi mystery film from debuting director Andrew Patterson, The Vast of Night takes place in 1950s New Mexico, where two youngsters, Fay Crocker (Sierra McCormick) and Everett Sloan (Jake Horowitz), encounter a mysterious radio signal which just might be of alien origin.
Patterson's film makes incredible use of its mere $700,000 budget to engage the audience's imagination and beg them to conjure up imagery in their mind from some extremely evocative spoken dialogue.
With the spirit of a radio play, Patterson proves that high-concept sci-fi can be executed without the help of a well-minted VFX department, largely employing just a handful of actors and some slickly dynamic camerawork.
Brilliantly ambiguous for the most part, The Vast of Night offers up a thoughtful, unconventional spin on typical alien invasion tropes and should therefore satisfy open-minded viewers prepared to follow Patterson's slight, low-key lead.