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a30 people & arts
Friday 29 May 2020
'The Vast of Night' is a cunning lo-fi sci-fi noir

lane beneath leafy trees
and talking of a semi-true
future, they seem momen-
tarily out of time.
Science and technology
hover around "The Vast of
Night"; power outages at
the school are rumored to
be caused by squirrels eat-
ing the wires. And once Ev-
erett is at the radio station
and Fay is plugged in at
the switchboard, they hear
a strange sound interrupt-
ing the transmission. Some-
thing, people are saying, is
in the sky.
Working from Fay's record-
ing, they quickly investigate
with the guidance of an
ominous caller. The secret
This image released by Amazon Studios shows Jake Horowitz and Sierra McCormick, right, in a scene from "The Vast of Night." seems to have only been
Associated Press glimpsed by witnesses that
others have ignored — a
By JAKE COYLE vaguely familiar, and it is. "The Vast of Night" has also and sounds ready to join black man, an old woman.
AP Film Writer "The Vast of Night" is framed already been playing at a Edward R. Murrow at CBS. "The Vast of Night" is, in a
"The Vast of Night," a micro- as an episode of "Paradox handful of drive-ins, where He's showing Fay (Sierra slinky way, about escaping
budget noir set in 1950s Theater," a "Twilight Zone" its period setting and old- McCormick), a 16-year- small-town small-minded-
New Mexico, crackles with knockoff that opens by fashioned sci-fi intrigue old switchboard operator ness.
B-movie electricity. warning the TV viewer: "You make it very possibly the with a new audio recorder, Patterson, who came up
The film is one of those little are entering the realm be- most drive-in-ready movie some of the basics of re- with the concept for James
miracles: a directorial de- tween the clandestine and of the pandemic. porting as they circle the Montague and Craig W.
but, made for nothing, that the forgotten." It also works just fine at gym and the already-bus- Sanger's script, occasion-
establishes a young film- But "The Vast of Night" is home. The film takes place tling parking lot. ally lets his camera prowl
maker of self-evident com- more than the pastiche it during the first high school They're both bright, ambi- the Cayuga streets. He
mand. With atmosphere pretends to be, and it shows basketball game of the tious teenagers in dark- and the cinematographer
and cunning, director An- plenty of B-movie moves season in Cayuga, New framed glasses. Fay excit- M.I. Littin-Menz conjure the
drew Patterson steers "The of its own. That made "The Mexico. The game has edly recounts the future feeling that something is
Vast of Night" through the Vast of Night" a festival hit drawn most of the town's predictions of a magazine indeed in the air — some-
soft, shadowy night air of last year after it premiered 492 population to the gym, article that forecast "vac- thing that momentarily
a small and quaint border- at the Slamdance Film Fes- where the camera trails uum-tube transportation" crosses with the frequency
land town where unseen tival. Amazon subsequently Everett (Jake Horowitz), a and telephone numbers of Orson Welles' "War of the
mysteries lurk. picked it up and will begin fast-talking student and ra- assigned at birth. While Worlds" broadcast, before
The set-up may sound streaming the film Friday. dio DJ who already looks strolling on a quiet, dark the signal cuts out.q

Sitcom casts to do virtual reading for Asian Heritage Month

By The Associated Press running a convenience store in
The casts of "Fresh Off the Boat" Toronto. The show's stars include
and "Kim's Convenience" are Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Jean Yoon
partnering for one night for char- and Simu Liu — who is set to play
ity. the Marvel Cinematic Universe's
In honor of Asian Pacific Ameri- first Asian superhero.
can Heritage Month, the ensem- Both trailblazing shows have
bles of both TV comedies will do been praised for their portrayals
live online table reads of their re- of Asian families on prime time
spective pilot episodes on Satur- TV.
day, according to Deadline. The table reads will be free to
It will be a reunion for Randall watch.
Park, Constance Wu and the rest But for a minimum donation of
of the "Fresh Off the Boat" cast. $10, access will be given to a
The ABC series about a Taiwan- joint Zoom Q&A afterward. Do-
ese American family ended in nations — either in U.S. or Cana-
February after six seasons. dian dollars — will benefit Asian
Canadian sitcom "Kim's Con- arts organizations in both coun-
venience," which is available in tries.
the U.S. on Netflix, was recently The event is scheduled for 6 p.m.

In this image released by ABC, Randall Park, left, and Constance Wu appear in renewed for a fifth and sixth sea- PDT/9 p.m. EDT on the Facebook
a scene from the new comedy series "Fresh Off the Boat." son. and YouTube channels of orga-
Associated Press It centers on a Korean family nizer Seed&Spark.q