Cloverfield
So after ‘I Am Legend’ we are back to see New York in a spot of bother. Rather a lot of bother. In fact I don’t think I’m being hysteric by stating that the Big Apple is in a serious fuckload of bother. First things first – I’ve kept my comments mostly spoiler free but inevitably some of the links I’ve collated give away the whole deal.
In Lower Manhattan a group of twenty-something’s are throwing a surprise farewell party for their friend Rob who has landed a cushy new job in Japan, a sly nod to one of the film’s most obvious influences. The whole event is being taped on a camcorder as a present to Rob and reminder of his friends as they each separately record their good wishes and goodbyes. For fifteen or so minutes this stumbles on until something happens. Something big happens. New York is under attack from….heh, well now, that would be telling wouldn’t it? Great Cthulhu? Martians? Suffice to say, the remaining taut 60 or so minutes (it is a triumph of brevity) feature our young protagonists filming and fleeing the immense chaos and destruction that unfolds around them…
A few things first. Yes, the 9/11 allusions are massive and like the recent ‘War of the Worlds’ wholly intentional. I don’t think you can produce shots of ash shrouded victims running for cover from collapsing buildings in any city without the obvious connections being made. It’s also very much a film of it’s time with on-lookers capturing images and events on their phones and palm pilots for future downloads to youtube or myspace – all very intentionally contemporary and in gel with the films viral teaser marketing campaign.
It has the whole ‘Blair Witch‘ style verite which I personally find to be very effective. Critics have noted the films ‘found footage’ technique which marks the similarity of the films but always omit tracing back both films debt to the charm less video nasty ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ which also presents the film itself as a found artefact, recovered from the ruins of Central Park or the Amazon jungle to project a veneer of authenticity – no mean feat when the bulk of your movie presents a 200 foot tall leviathan fucking up Manhattan.
I liked the film but left the cinema slightly disappointed, perhaps inevitably given the hype. When you finally got to see the beast – two ‘money’ shots toward the end – it can’t quite match the expectation that your imagination has been building up through the deafening sound mix and careful use of shadows and smog to obscure the monster. On the other hand it’s a nice fun B movie with a quite ruthless edge- all bets are off on whom will live or die given the lack of noticeable stars. It also has some nice tributes and references to a number of other movies, amongst them ‘The War Game’, the first and best ‘Alien’, ‘The Host’ and surprisingly ‘Starship Troopers’. There is a moment of quiet solemnity during a lull in the action when the survivors are bivouacked in the subway tunnels that I found quite effective then it was back on with the carnage. In the dark.
I think it’s interesting that the genre has shifted away from a global to the personnel. Again like ‘War of the Worlds’ the film, dictated by it’s design, focuses in on the exploits and trials of ‘normal’ people rather than cutting over to the antics of the President or the Air Force generals in crisis meetings anxiously consulting with their lab coated scientists and boffins in order to eliminate the threat. It’s a sign of our times that the distrust of authority and aura of powerlessness prevails – you’re on your own, fighting for survival and the hero is not going to put in a last minute return from the dead and despatch the creature with a new super weapon and cunningly worded quip. In this great 1965 paper on disaster and SF the academic Susan Sontag collates some of the then genres icons and motifs – how things change eh?
Minty's Menagerie 
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