I was pretty sure I was going to like this one from about five minutes in, as the camera swoops along behind and beside fast-moving teenage radio DJ Everett Sloan and his rapid-fire, slang-laden patter into and through a local basketball stadium, then back out into the night-time streets, sweeping up similarly aged switchboard operator Fay Crocker and her new tape recorder along the way - the setting, 1950s small town New Mexico.
It basically starts in medias res, leaving the viewer to catch up as they can, and the off-kilter tone intrigues from the outset; the film continues to groove as it goes along, building its Cold War era vibes of paranoia and possible alien invasion through score, mounting mood and tension, and some spectacular scenes, especially Fay at the switchboard as the fear mounts, on a trajectory towards its ending that's neither wholly predictable nor arbitrary-feeling.
