I’ll quote the most recent review on IMDb:

Robert’s life is gently lived and not without profound tragedy. The film evokes our own memories, little joys and sadnesses, discoveries, losses, and hopes, bringing grace to our self-reflection. The film is heartbreakingly beautiful. Acting, editing, and direction are just right. 

I read on Wikipedia that it’s doing very well, and deservedly so. Of course, I now regret not having known about or read the novel before watching the movie.

Update: I just found out that the title track of the original soundtrack is by Nick Cave.

A young boy named Mahito yearning for his mother ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning.

Unsurprisingly, the animation is stunning, and the complex story is beautifully narrated. Mahito Maki, the protagonist, is a kid grappling with inner conflicts and insecurities who recently lost his beloved mother in a dramatic accident. The fantastic and very “Miyazakiest” events that unfold once he and his father reach his mother’s family’s rural residence will help him cope with his loss. This movie’s central themes are dealing with strife and loss, letting go of selfishness, and embracing living for and with others. As is often the case with Miyazaki, while the protagonist is a kid (and a young audience may appreciate the content, possibly on a more superficial level), the target audience is adults.

I read that The Boy and the Heron has autobiographical features. Like Mahito, Miyazaki lost his mother as a kid and was forced to evacuate from the city to the countryside during the war. His works commonly find children leaving the city for the rural areas, only to meet the magic and fantastic once they get there. I cannot help but draw a parallel with J.R.R. Tolkien, who devoted much of his youth exploring the outskirts of Birmingham with his brother Hillary. That “kind of lost paradise” and the rural people who inhabited it were instrumental in inspiring the Hobbits and Hobbiton… but I’m getting off-topic.

One night, in a small New Mexico town, a girl who works at a local radio station and an older reporter boy listen to a recording of some strange noises. Through the radio and its listeners, throughout a single night, they uncover a series of sighting stories that, from clue to clue and radio testimony to radio testimony, bring them close to uncovering something big.

It has a distinctive retro soundtrack, and its beauty is the pleasure of the stories told. At the center of everything always remains the mystery the two protagonists try to investigate in one night, approaching the truth from testimony to testimony. A good part of the film lies in the classic elements of science fiction, namely the discovery (perhaps) of something from another planet; another part, however, is the creation of the overwhelming sense of excitement of two people from a small provincial town who increasingly feel they are part of something important.

The photography, lighting, and camerawork are stellar:

At the midpoint, Patterson wows with a tracking shot that seems to race a half-mile down a quiet street, take a left-hook through a parking lot, sprint through an ongoing basketball game, and zip up the crowded bleachers before plunging out of a window. It’s effective razzle-dazzle that will probably get the young Oklahoman hired to make something 20 times The Vast of Night’s budget. Yet, the ambition behind it is just as impressive – as is the crew’s creativity at spinning financial limitations into magic."
–Amy Nicholson, Variety.

“The Vast of the Night” is a small, independent, character-driven debut film that perfectly captures America’s province life in the 50s and cleverly leverages those atmospheres. Inventive and charming, it is also a homage to The Twilight Zone, The War Of The Worlds (the radio station name is WOTW), and others.

Serena found it slow, especially at the beginning. I can understand that: the first twenty minutes are a long walk-and-talk between the two protagonists, but oh boy, look the world-building (and camera work) happening right there!