Cloverfield

Posted by Greg

May 11, 2008

No luck for the Irish… or anyone for that matter

**** out of *****

When someone makes a film that’s described by disparate critics as ‘new, invigorating, fresh, exciting’ etc, it’s usually not because they made a good film about an old concept - it’s usually because they made an old concept new again. Strangely enough, my High School English teacher was right - there really are only three conflicts: man vs. man, man vs. nature and man vs. himself. Everything is just a variation on that concept and most of it’s been done. The genius of Cloverfield, produced by Hollywood’s new ‘it’ boy J.J Abrams, is at its core a monster movie, plain and simple. But he twists the presentation, making it a much more personal story than we’re used to, and throws in some state-of-the-art special effects, genuinely creepy set pieces and some amazing sound effects work (although you might have to amp up the geek quotient to really appreciate the last one).

The first thing you have to know is that Cloverfield is filmed as if it were a home movie, all on digital camcorders and all from a first-person perspective, similar to The Blair Witch Project. It’s a style that annoys some and doesn’t bother others; personally, I think if you sit far enough back, you shouldn’t have a problem.

The film starts as preparations are being made for a surprise farewell party for Rob (Michael Stahl-David), who is moving from Manhattan to Japan (the irony isn’t lost that it’s the land of Godzilla). During the first 20 minutes, we meet our protagonists: Rob, his brother Jason (Mike Vogel), Jason’s girlfriend Lily (Jessica Lucas), Rob’s best friend and cameraman Hud (T.J Miller), Hud’s crush Marlena (Lizzy Caplan) and Rob’s secret love Beth (Odette Yustman). When Rob and Beth have an argument at the party, she storms out, leaving Rob’s brother and friends to tell him that he has to suck up his pride, forget about the fact that he’s leaving for Japan and just tell Beth he loves her. And that’s when all hell breaks loose.

The building shakes, the lights go off and everyone at the party heads up to the roof to see what’s happening. It’s then that they see an immense explosion near the harbor that sends flaming debris raining down around them. When they run downstairs and out into the street, they’re nearly all killed by the torn-up head of the Statue of Liberty as it comes bouncing down the road. That’s the part that you see in the trailers, and it only gets worse from there. On their way out of the city with millions of panicked citizens, Rob gets a call from Beth, who says she’s at home, bleeding and unable to move, before the call gets cut off. Motivated by love, distracted by fear, he heads back into the city to find her, with his friends in tow.

Director Matt Reeves, who cut his teeth on TV shows like Felicity, wisely keeps things tight. The gimmick is that the videotape you’re watching was recovered in Central Park, so the movie is kept to a home-video tape length - 85 minutes, which is the perfect amount of time for a movie like this. There are very few moments of silence - for most of the film, you can hear the distant roar of the monster, gunfire, explosions and the odd jet and helicopter flying overhead - and that’s during the downtime. When things pick up, they get intense. As our heroes journey through mostly deserted streets, abandoned subway tunnels and over destroyed buildings, they come face to face with the monster - and the military - on several occasions, each time louder, more harrowing and dangerous than the last. There are also a few creepy surprises that should keep you on your toes.

The brilliance of the idea lies in its simplicity and it’s ‘everyman’ quality. Imagine for a second that you go outside and see a gruesome 300-foot tall monster absolutely thrashing your city to pieces, destroying entire buildings with a single swipe while the military causes almost the same amount of destruction trying to stop it. What would you do? While Bruce Willis, Vin Diesel and Sornram Theppitak are off saving the city and leading their team to victory, what would you do? Who would you call? Who would you bring with you? Where would you go? The film isn’t interested in sweeping wide shots of the monster, or a brilliant scientist who explains what it is and where it came from, or a magical weakness discovered at the last minute - we’re with our heroes the whole time, seeing only what they see as they see it.

Some may find this a bit of a cop-out - no explanation is ever given for the thing or what it wants. It just is. I guess it can be seen as a metaphor for ______, appearing out of nowhere, destroying everything it can and taking us all by surprise. Choose your theme - AIDS, meteors, true love, George Bush.

The young and mostly unknown actors in the film are quite good, especially Stahl-David, who anchors his insane mission with the right amount of obsessive desperation and logical determination. Especially poignant is a brief slow moment where he gets a call from his mother, and must tell her that he’s okay but at the same time deliver some very bad news. Cameraman Hud is also great, offering some surprisingly effective comic relief.

I don’t know how Reeves pulled of some his shots - realistic CGI is notoriously hard to do while the camera is shaking all around, but the large-scale destruction of Manhattan is nearly flawless. Many of his camera angles are equally brilliant, showing us just enough to make us go ‘Holy crap!’ and ‘What the hell was that thing?’ at the same time.

Whatever your opinion is - some will inevitably find the shaky-cam too much or think the film is just a Blair Witch/Godzilla rip-off - you can’t deny that it genuinely delivers on what it offers. It’s an intense ride but also a personal and nearly small film. A definite must-see.

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