Cloverfield

2008

Director: Matt Reeve (Produced by J.J. Abrams)

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Key Elements: Concept - Visuals

My Review:

Brilliant. Abrams zooms in on the monster movie genre and brings us face to face with a revisitation of a cliché subject matter. It's kind of funny that the film begins with a going-away party for a guy on his way to Japan - the country that brought us Godzilla to begin with.

His new angle brings the old theme back to life. The jerky hand-held filming combined with off-centered special effects creates an eerily personal surrealism.

But what surprised me in this movie was the human element. In particular, the scene where Rob has to call his mom and tell her that his brother is dead. I was moved nearly to tears. Not what I expected from a monster flick.

Bonus points for reintroducing us to Lizzy Caplan, Janis Ian from Mean Girls.

Trailer:



Quotes:

• I saw it! It's alive! It's huge!
• Looks like you should have left town a little bit earlier...
• We don’t know what we saw. The point is it’s still here. So we get the hell out of Manhattan. Now.
• People are gonna want to know... how it all went down.
• Mom. Mom, listen. We tried to get out of the city, and we took the Brooklyn Bridge. And we were right there when it hit. …Jason’s dead. Jason’s dead, Mom.
• My name is Robert Hawkins. Approximately seven hours ago some *thing* attacked the city. If you found this, if you're watching this then you probably know more about it than I do.

Stills: