Is there a director whose work you just can’t get into, while everyone you know loves and admires them? That’s my experience with Jeff Nichols, who you might know best for his 2011 drama Take Shelter, which is mostly good before it crawls up its own keister in its final scene. With his new film, Midnight Special, he’s batting 1 for 4 with me; I liked his last film, Mud, which lets go of many of his ticks and bad tendencies as a filmmaker, but boy, Midnight Special just did not work for me. You can’t ape successfully Spielberg without letting a little warmth into your film. (And on top of that the whole thing just looks bland as a plain bagel.) Dig my collected thoughts on this thing over at Paste Magazine.
