Documentary approach works in 'Cloverfield'
The heavily hyped science-fiction horror movie "Cloverfield" is a scary, unabashedly cheesy, in-your-face thriller that cheerily picks the scab off our still-fresh memories of 9/11 to remarkably realistic effect.
Imagine the American remake of "Godzilla" as refashioned by the makers of "The Blair Witch Project," with a generous slab of the Armageddon drama "The Miracle Mile" tossed in at the end. Roughly, you have "Cloverfield," an intense, brisk, 84-minute visceral experience where the hair-raising scare tactics seamlessly meld with the film's immediate and urgent "we are there" documentary approach.
"Cloverfield" instantly establishes this approach during its opening minutes, where we see TV color bars, followed by an ominous official government memo announcing that the following video footage has been retrieved from "incident site U.S. 477 previously known as Central Park."
Next, we see what appears to be an unedited home videotape, first of a young New Yorker named Rob (Michael Stahl-David) and his girlfriend Beth (Odette Yustman), then of a going-away party for Rob, who's apparently heading to Japan to be a vice president of a company.
This sequence, complete with whip-pans, zooms and out-of-focus, hand-held shots, looks so raw and realistic, we almost forget we're in a horror film. Lilly (Jessica Lucas) gives her boyfriend Jason (Mike Vogel) the job of videotaping testimonials for his departing brother Rob.
Jason pawns the job off to his pal Hudson (a mostly unseen but often heard T.J. Miller). "Hud" prefers to focus on the mysterious Marlena (Lizzy Caplan). His camera keeps approaching her, then retreating as he loses his nerve to break the ice.
At about the 20-minute mark, "Cloverfield" doesn't so much shift narrative gears as slam into G-force overdrive. An earthquake shakes their Manhattan high-rise. An explosion demolishes a nearby building and rains fiery debris from the sky. Hud's view finder becomes a pixelated portrait in pandemonium and panic as his terrified friends flee to the streets, now resembling the dust-encrusted, eerie footage from Ground Zero in 2001.
Suddenly, the tight, low--budget "Cloverfield" lurches into an epic scale with military jets soaring over New York and troops and combat vehicles filling the streets and firing missiles at will. In the background, come sounds of something beastly. "What is that thing?" somebody asks. An Army officer replies, "I don't know. But whatever it is, it's winning!"
"Cloverfield" is really about three-fourths of a superb monster movie, laced with lots of unexpected, nervous humor. The script comes from "Lost" producer/writer Drew Goddard with direction from "Felicity" director/writer Matt Reeves.
Neither man, and not even producer J.J. Abrams (another "Lost" director/writer), heeded "Jaws" director Steven Spielberg's warning not to show the monster too soon. When we finally see the digital beastie in full, "Cloverfield" deflates like a balloon with its suspense escaping like air.
The end, stretching to achieve a "Blair Witch"-like finale, is flat and unsatisfyingly blunt. But up until then, these superb cast members (that they're unknown lends realism to the plot) have us convinced that New York really is under attack by something big and mean.
We also learn something about survival in "Cloverfield" -- when all the rats in Manhattan's subway tunnels are running away from something, it might be a good idea to join them.
"Cloverfield"
Rating: 3 stars
Opens: today
Starring:
Michael Stahl-David as Rob Hawkins
Mike Vogel as Jason Hawkins
Odette Yustman as Beth McIntyre
T.J. Miller as Hud
Lizzy Caplan as Marlena
Written by Drew Goddard. Produced by J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk. Directed by Matt Reeves. A Paramount Pictures release. Rated PG-13 (violence) Running time: 84 minutes.