Jeff Nichols’s gripping cosmic thriller has it all – a superb cast, gritty realism and a final-act reveal that will amaze you…

Ah, the eternal problem of the spoiler warning… You never want to give away too much plot in a film review – but then, plot isn’t always the biggest thing that you would ideally want to keep fresh for the viewer. In Jeff Nichols’s Midnight Special, two of the biggest surprises are particular visual effects, so I’ll disclose just one, namely that this terrific American science fiction/thriller hybrid does some (literally) dazzling things with a certain shade of blue light.

Midnight Special is the fourth feature by Jeff Nichols, the Arkansas-born writer-director who has rapidly established himself as an inventive, independent-minded talent with a firm belief in old-fashioned storytelling values. His 2007 debut, Shotgun Stories, a modest but taut family feud drama, helped establish its star,...