From The Daily Journal:

A group of kids shooting a film witness the event of a lifetime when a train crash kick starts a series of unusual events in their small town. Writer-director J.J. Abrams' loving homage to vintage Spielberg taps into the nostalgia that's intrinsic to a generation who grew up with "E.T.," "The Goonies," "Poltergeist" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Abrams also knows the human relationships in those films were a huge part of their success, and puts a similar emphasis on them here. Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Ron Eldard and Joel Courtney, in his debut, deliver strong performances in a film that's fantastic in more ways than one.