Midnight Special Movie • Page 3

Last I checked, Nichols hasn't made anything like Your Highness or The Sitter. The fact that Green made those movies always invalidated those 'Kevin Smith is the Special Olympics of filmmaking' comments, to me.

Joe was pretty dope, though.

 

Shotgun Stories was also great.

 

It's really nothing like that. Even if you didn't like Midnight Special as much as I did, it's still not at all comparable to Green's jump from All The Real Girls-Undertow-Snow Angels to Pineapple Express-Your Highness-The Sitter.

 

I really liked this movie a lot, it'd be in my top 10 of the year. It was very well paced and the cast was great.

I don't know much about David Gordon Green but I liked most of those movies listed above. His comments about Kevin Smith stated above are terrible. Dogma and Redstate trump Green's movies IMO.

 

There are few American films from the 21st century as good as George Washington.

 

Never ever heard even heard of it. When I googled it I read "Although it was not widely seen due to having had a very limited release, the film received wide praise from critics." I wonder why no real release? I'll have to find it.

 

No, it is pretty close. Mainstream recognition does it far too often.

 

How is it not? Both directors have abandoned the very interesting independent work they became known for in order to make anonymous studio films.

 

Are you counting Mud in this? Are you considering Midnight Special as a mainstream movie? Green's movies were also more director-for-hire big-budget comedies written and produced by other people. Nichols is still an auteur who made one Oscar-bait movie [that I have not seen yet]. Honestly, it's a very poor comparison.

 

I'm starting to think Mud is his worst.

 

Deleted that prior because I respect your opinion/lack the cinematic knowledge to really delve into this but I really enjoyed this film and don't really feel like there is any world in which this can be compared to a departure like Your Highness. Thought this was engrossing and honestly really surprised it received a wide release. Felt like the same film that the director of Take Shelter would have made - a little more extravagant but still ambiguous and thoughtful.

 

This was a very good film from an exceptional filmmaker. And I do mean filmmaker. Nichols is incredibly talented and has made five films ranging from very good to truly great. His films are dripping with authorship and are instantly recognizable as his own. Some of the hyperbole in here is just blatantly dishonest.

Take Shelter >Shotgun Stories > Midnight Special > Mud > Loving

 

It is less about the quality of the films and more about the tonal shift and abandoning of their original success. With Nichols there is a little bit more hope because the three films since Take Shelter have had a moment or two where you could see the lineage to Take Shelter and Shotgun Stories.

 

Mud was the beginning of the downfall. For Green, it was Undertow, even though All the Real Girls was below George Washington.

 

Don't ever tell someone their opinion is dishonest.

 

I didn't tell anyone their opinion was dishonest. I just commented on the absurdity of some of the general exaggeration taking place in the thread.

 

Pretty much everyone agrees that Jeff Nichols has not recently matched the quality of his first two films.

 

Could not agree more with this statement. I am with you 110% on it, in fact. As you can tell based on my provided ranking of his films. A film like Take Shelter comes along very rarely and it can be tough for someone who accomplishes so much so quickly to continue measuring up to it.

But pretty much everyone also agrees, however, that his three films since then have at least been very good, if not better than very good for many.

 

They are not terrible, but they leave very little worth remembering. Everyone remembers the power of Take Shelter, but the melancholy throughout Shotgun Stories always comes to mind when that film was brought up, especially since it really did not become known to most people until Take Shelter came out. From the three most recent films, you are getting competency and some good moments but overall there is little else. It is very similar to how David Gordon Green went from George Washington to passable but uninteresting films like Undertow and Snow Angels.

 

I loved this movie and thought Mud was ok. I guess from all this talk I need to go see Take Shelter....

 

I can certainly see where someone could call Loving "passable and uninteresting," although I did mostly enjoy that film (save for its criminal under-use of Michael Shannon). It was a surprisingly intimate take on the bog-standard "moment-in-time biopic" subgenre that was as wholly uninterested in spotlighting why the Lovings were famous as the Lovings themselves were. That's a unique take on that type of film that doesn't happen very often. But Midnight Special and Mud are above-average. I mean, Mud is more highly-rated than either of his first two films, despite being inferior to them in my own personal opinion. Plus it features some of the best child acting in recent memory.

 

Keep preaching my man! Just because Mud, Midnight Special and Loving aren't as good as Take Shelter doesn't mean we "lost" Jeff Nichols....

 

By whom?

 

Rotten Tomatoes

 

Critics I'd guess. Out of all of his films including Midnight, I heard the most about Mud.