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Cloverfield (2008)
Run For Your Life!
Directed By: Matt Reeves
Starring: Michael Stahl-David, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan, & Odette Yustman
MPAA Rating: “PG-13” (for violence, terror and disturbing images)
Starring: Michael Stahl-David, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan, & Odette Yustman
MPAA Rating: “PG-13” (for violence, terror and disturbing images)
Cloverfield (2008) had one of the most expansive viral marketing campaigns ever devised, one that featured mysterious commercials for fake sodas and a title-less trailer attached to Transformers. For months, websites were buzzing about the mysterious film despite knowing nothing about it except that the teaser was shot in first-person and that it featured a brief glimpse of Manhattan in complete chaos. I never really understood what made Cloverfield so appealing to so many people, but it was...for a while. By the time the movie was released, the excessive buzz surrounding the project had begun to die down, much like what happened with Snakes on a Plane. The only difference is that, when it finally came time for the film to open, people were still very much interested. The only question then was: would these people be satisfied...or disappointed?
Rob Hawkins (Stahl-David) is moving out of Manhattan to accept a high-profile job in Japan and his friends, including his brother Jason (Mike Vogel) and Jason’s girlfriend Lilly (Lucas), are throwing him a going-away party. Still upset over his relationship with Beth (Yustman), which went sour after they slept together and he did not call her back, he is devastated when she shows up at his party with a new date. After a heated argument, she storms out and Rob confines himself to his bedroom. As Jason and another friend named Hud (T.J. Miller) try to comfort him, a thunderous explosion rakes the city and the friends are plunged into a horrific battle for survival. Desperate to find Beth and escape the city, they find themselves pitted against an unimaginable terror, all filmed through the eyes of Hud’s video camera.
Everything in Cloverfield is played out with complete realism (with the exception of the end credits, which are necessary and irremovable) with the only music being that played by characters on radios or in office buildings and the camera angles crude and unpolished much of time. The title of the film is depicted as a government codeword placed at the very beginning with the words “Government Property - Do Not Duplicate” shadowed in the background. When the characters shut off the camera, we too are cut off and we are forced back into the action sometime later. When the characters stop filming but keep the camera on, we glimpse back at the tape over which this is being recorded (an intelligent way to use flashbacks to show the relationship between Rob and Beth without sacrificing realism). The filmmakers also use this to cleverly maintain a certain aura of mystery surrounding the film. Where did the monster come from? I don’t know, but the filmmakers do...they just don’t tell, but rather hint.
Cloverfield is at its best during and just after the beginning of the attack, with the entire population of Manhattan wondering out into the streets in complete horror. For those of us who did not follow the film religiously on message boards, we are like those people; we have no idea what is going to happen or what has happened. One of the film’s most haunting scenes (which somewhat mirrors the tragic footage of September 11th, 2001) features a wave of dirt, dust, and smoke that explodes from a collapsed building engulfing desperate civilians. Once we know what is happening, the film becomes a different creature altogether. It is a pure adrenaline rush that does not stop until the end. Cloverfield succeeds primarily because, instead of just filming events in first-person and then forcing us to watch it all happen, it seems to drag us into the action. Like Rob and Lilly and Jason, we feel like we are caught in the middle of the horror...and that giant monster wants to reach out and eat us as well.
Rob Hawkins (Stahl-David) is moving out of Manhattan to accept a high-profile job in Japan and his friends, including his brother Jason (Mike Vogel) and Jason’s girlfriend Lilly (Lucas), are throwing him a going-away party. Still upset over his relationship with Beth (Yustman), which went sour after they slept together and he did not call her back, he is devastated when she shows up at his party with a new date. After a heated argument, she storms out and Rob confines himself to his bedroom. As Jason and another friend named Hud (T.J. Miller) try to comfort him, a thunderous explosion rakes the city and the friends are plunged into a horrific battle for survival. Desperate to find Beth and escape the city, they find themselves pitted against an unimaginable terror, all filmed through the eyes of Hud’s video camera.
Everything in Cloverfield is played out with complete realism (with the exception of the end credits, which are necessary and irremovable) with the only music being that played by characters on radios or in office buildings and the camera angles crude and unpolished much of time. The title of the film is depicted as a government codeword placed at the very beginning with the words “Government Property - Do Not Duplicate” shadowed in the background. When the characters shut off the camera, we too are cut off and we are forced back into the action sometime later. When the characters stop filming but keep the camera on, we glimpse back at the tape over which this is being recorded (an intelligent way to use flashbacks to show the relationship between Rob and Beth without sacrificing realism). The filmmakers also use this to cleverly maintain a certain aura of mystery surrounding the film. Where did the monster come from? I don’t know, but the filmmakers do...they just don’t tell, but rather hint.
Cloverfield is at its best during and just after the beginning of the attack, with the entire population of Manhattan wondering out into the streets in complete horror. For those of us who did not follow the film religiously on message boards, we are like those people; we have no idea what is going to happen or what has happened. One of the film’s most haunting scenes (which somewhat mirrors the tragic footage of September 11th, 2001) features a wave of dirt, dust, and smoke that explodes from a collapsed building engulfing desperate civilians. Once we know what is happening, the film becomes a different creature altogether. It is a pure adrenaline rush that does not stop until the end. Cloverfield succeeds primarily because, instead of just filming events in first-person and then forcing us to watch it all happen, it seems to drag us into the action. Like Rob and Lilly and Jason, we feel like we are caught in the middle of the horror...and that giant monster wants to reach out and eat us as well.
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