What is Cinema?

We first meet him under a blanket, lit up by a flashlight, wearing dark goggles and reading a comic-book. And we wonder, "What's up with this boy?" All the more so because " Midnight Special " (2016, USA), Jeff Nichols' fourth feature film, begins where normally a film should already be in its mid-way section - that is to say, the 9-year-old mysterious boy is being taken on the run by his father (Michael Shannon) and his father's childhood friend (Joel Edgerton). This sense of wonder and mystery is what actually informs our entire viewing experience of the film, a thrilling and original sci-fi adventure that serves as a fitting breath of fresh air in the midst of the suffocating barrage of superhero comic-book adaptations (if it's of any ironic value, the boy is in fact reading a Superman comics).  As it turns out, the boy, named Alton (Jaeden Lieberher), is being pursued by a Texas-based religious cult group called The Ranch, who believes that he is...