Quick Review: Cloverfield

Aside from the Pacific Rim stock market panic, the new condition that’s sweeping our nation this Monday is “Cloverfield neck.” Defined by one of my friends who saw the JJ Abram’s produced monster film as, “the sensation and pain one feel’s after cocking their neck about 33 degrees to the side due to the handheld camera work in Cloverfield.” Box office results indicate that many Americans may have woken up today with “Cloverfield neck” and I for one say it was entirely worth it.

Cloverfield is a rarity in this day and age of mass advertised blockbuster films in that it feels like it should be one of those empty headed summer flicks but instead it carves out a unique identity all its own. Written by Buffy and Lost vet Drew Goddard, the movie contains plenty of wit, humor, scares, and gloom and doom. The film’s pace is hurt a bit by a rather lengthy background segment introducing our lead characters at a surprise party. Although there is a clever twist to the sequence as we don’t know yet who the lead characters are. One or two are pretty obvious but the film devotes equal time to many of the party goers. Since the audience knows the basic set up (people chased through Manhattan by a big bad) we’re just waiting for that Independence Day type moment where we’re introduced to our “heroes”, instead we’re left to wait and see which of the no name stars will be our focus. Those cast members that do emerge from the pack as the stars of the film do a fine job and seem to improve as the film comes closer to its conclusion. These are not award winning performances and really it’s not an award winning movie but they excel for what it is. Similar to the lack of stars, much has been made of the “Blair Witch” camera work and while it does cause some discomfort, especially early on at the party weirdly enough, it is no where near the same kind of stomach turning experience as The Blair Witch Project. Director Matt Reeves may have studied previous hand held films but he certainly has tweaked and improved upon the technique. There has also been some criticism of the idea of a disaster movie taking place in New York after 9/11. Reeves and Goddard have certainly not taken a cavalier attitude towards Manhattan’s destruction and there is reverence for the city as much as the characters. The echoes that do come from the real world are the realistic effects of building collapses and for those of us in the Twin Cities, the collapse of a bridge. These moments do not take you out of the film though and only further draw you in to the experience. Finally there’s the big bad itself and I can honestly tell you without spoiling anything that…I have no fucking clue as to what that thing was. It’s bad ass and all but that’s not really the point of the film which is again why this anti-blockbuster, blockbuster works.