What’s it rated? PG-13
When? 2019
Where’s it showing? Amazon Prime
Andrew Patterson directs this sci-fi film about two teenagers living in 1950s Cayuga, New Mexico. Fay (Sierra McCormick) is a switchboard operator, and Everett (Jake Horowitz) is a radio DJ. They discover and begin investigating a strange radio frequency. The story takes place over one night and is framed as an episode of Paradox Theatre, a Twilight Zone-esque TV anthology series.
This impressive debut by first-time director Patterson rips a page out of the Steven Spielberg playbook, mixing nostalgia, aliens, and wide-eyed characters in a story that feels like a distant cousin to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). As Fay and Everett dig out the truth about the strange signal, they’re first contacted by Billy (Bruce Davis), an ex-serviceman who claims to have been part of a secret operation that may have been involved in hiding an alien spacecraft. Later they meet homebound Mabel Blanche (Gail Cronauer), who claims her then-9-year-old son was abducted decades earlier. As the plot thickens, the action speeds up to a frantic final encounter.
It’s a fun story that recalls the sci-fi films of the ’50s—low key, low budget, and lots of fun. (89 min.)
This article appears in Summer Guide 2020.