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Nothing — neither waterboarding, nor pincers on my fingernails, nor Justin Bieber music — will get me to divulge more than the barest amount of information about "Midnight Special."
I say this because one of the many joys in this tense, smart and good-hearted thriller is watching how writer-director Jeff Nichols reveals his movie's secrets, a little at a time, all the way to the end.
As with his stunning 2011 thriller "Take Shelter," Nichols starts with Michael Shannon looking nervous. Here, Shannon plays Roy Tomlin, whose picture is being plastered all over TV as part of an Amber Alert over a missing 8-year-old boy, Alton (Jaeden Lieberher).
As with his 2012 drama "Mud," Nichols entrusts his film to a young actor — in this case, Lieberher, who impressed in "St. Vincent" — with handsome dividends. For reasons that eventually become clearer, Alton is a very special boy, and everyone knows it.
Because of Alton's special nature, Roy has teamed with Lucas (Joel Edgerton), who carries many guns and is well-trained in their use, to protect the lad as they drive across the Southeast. The three are on the run from a Texas cult, led by the Rev. Calvin Meyer (Sam Shepard), who has turned Alton's numerical speaking in tongues into sermons. They're also evading the feds, including an NSA analyst (Adam Driver) who wants to know why those sermons seem to include classified data.
Where are they going, and why? Well, that's for us to discover during the course of this wondrous movie, in which Nichols teases audiences to guess the answers and then giddily upends those expectations.
Nichols has assembled a perfect cast, led by Shannon, young Lieberher, Driver and Kirsten Dunst. He fills the frame with details that heighten the authenticity — such as giving the womenfolk in the Rev. Meyer's flock the hair and dress aesthetics of Warren Jeffs' wives — and enrich even minor characters. He creates shots that capture the grandeur of Stanley Kubrick and moments that echo the soulfulness of Steven Spielberg.
The neatest trick Nichols pulls in "Midnight Special" is keeping a lid on the movie's secrets, which isn't easy for a film released by Warner Bros. — the same people who divulged Wonder Woman's entrance in "Batman v. Superman" in the trailers. In an age when nervous studios second-guess every filmmaker, it's a miracle that a movie lets us walk into the theater with a mystery still awaiting.
Twitter: @moviecricket —
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'Midnight Special'
A mystery wrapped in an enigma, cloaked in bravura filmmaking by director-writer Jeff Nichols.
Where • Area theaters.
When • Opens Friday.
Rating • PG-13 for some violence and action.
Running time • 112 minutes.