Berlin Review: Jeff Nichols' 'Midnight Special' With Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst & Adam Driver

What if there were something entirely new in this world? What if it were your son? The idea that your child might be a semi-messianic, unprecedented creature of ungovernable, infinite potential is fairly common among parents, but what if it were proven to be a literal fact? Great science fiction is almost always founded on such simple but paradigm-shifting what-ifs, and the fourth feature from director Jeff Nichols ("Shotgun Stories," "Mud," "Take Shelter") brings this premise thrumming and throbbing to life. Structured as a low-key chase movie, unfolding with the dark urgency of a conspiracy thriller, living mostly not in your heart or even your mind but in the hairs on the back of your neck, "Midnight Special" actually emerges most resonantly as an almost mournful ode, or maybe a psalm, to the primal instincts of fatherhood.

READ MORE: Eerie First Clip From Jeff Nichols' 'Midnight Special' With Michael Shannon And Joel Edgerton

The set-up is...