Midnight Special: Jeff Nichols’ film tells a story that, for better of worse, moves in very unexpected ways; it starts looking like one sort of story and changes abruptly, more than once. The journey is interesting, but it’s the characters, and the way they are played by the cast, that makes this emotionally engaging. The acting is low-key, subdued, which lends the whole a realism that is quite welcome; Michael Shannon is the stand-out, intense and touching. The film has a simple, no-nonsense but beautiful look of its backwater locations; David Wingo’s music is a good fit.