Critics Praised This Adam Driver Sci-Fi Film With An All-Star Cast, But Audiences Ignored It

When Jeff Nichols made his first studio movie, "Midnight Special," circa ten years ago, everything was set up for it to be a success. In the years that preceded it, the writer-director established his name as an up-and-coming filmmaker with three indies ("Shotgun Stories," "Take Shelter," and "Mud," respectively) that brought him well-earned recognition among critics and a small but sophisticated audience. His fourth feature boasted a minor yet prestigious cast, including Michael Shannon (his frequent collaborator), Joel Edgerton, Adam Driver, Kirsten Dunst, and Jaeden Martell, among others, alongside an intriguing script with a central mystery and a mesmerizing atmosphere that set him apart from his peers. And yet, despite the showers of critical praise the movie received early on, audiences dismissed it so much that it ended up flopping at the box office, garnering only $7.1 million worldwide against its $18 million budget.

"Midnight Special" follows two men, Roy (Shannon) and Lucas (Edgerton), on the run with a young boy named Alton (Martell), who seems to possess an otherworldly power that both the FBI and a religious cult want to contain, observe, and control. Roy, who is the birth father of Alton, knows that his son is destined for something divine, and he's willing to do anything and everything (including murder) to get him to the destination Alton is pulled toward by his gift. The journey takes four days, with deliberate stops and encounters with helpers, as the FBI is breathing down the trio's neck amid a nationwide search, during which we slowly learn about Alton's condition, what he is, and why it's crucial for him to remain free and get where he needs to be before it's too late.

On paper, "Midnight Special" may look like another generic sci-fi involving superpowers — which might've been the reason audiences weren't drawn to it in the first place — but that couldn't be further from the truth. Nichols' approach and style channel an old-fashioned character-driven narrative filled with a characteristic 1980s vibe (despite the film taking place in the present), while also evoking such classic man-on-the-run thrillers as Clint Eastwood's "A Perfect World" with Kevin Costner. Its obscure mystery is what pulls the viewer in immediately, but it's the richly drawn characters that keep us immersed and locked in throughout. They don't make a lot of these types of films — high-concept, instantly captivating, yet also profound — these days. It's the kind of movie that requires patience, which gets rewarded immensely in the long run. You just have to trust the director in executing his vision.

And boy, oh, boy, Nichols executes and delivers handsomely as his feature gradually transitions from a slow-burn mystery to a full-on tension-ridden and action-packed thriller in its final act. Employing modest yet strangely alluring special effects with taut pacing and restrained yet pitch-perfect performances, he shows us that his prowess as a singular filmmaker is as real and valid as it gets. Playing rather gently on the heartstrings with characters we deeply care about and root for by its final stretch, "Midnight Special" becomes a poignant wonder of a sci-fi that deserved much better than it initially got from the audience. It's truly an overlooked gem that should receive a reappraisal and be championed as a cult classic.