CLOVERFIELD
Director: Matt Reeves Stars: Michael Stahl-David, Lizzy Caplin, Jessica Lucas, TJ Miller, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman, Billy Brown, Chris Mulkey
Reviewed by PETER MALONE
What a sweet title for a film, all pretty and pastoral. Actually, it was initially a code name during the production taken from a street near the producer’s office. But, word got out about the film and this unintended title stuck. It is nicely deceptive for those who don’t know what the film is about (which, more or less, was how I saw it) but, with box-office news and saturation advertising, most moviegoers well know that this is a monster movie.
It certainly fits into the mood of the times (and there must be a solid PhD thesis somewhere here). Why is it that there are quite a number of high profile films these days, especially from the US, which are featuring menace, disaster and the end of the world? With continued threats of epidemics like SARS or bird-flu, with natural disasters and fears from climate change hurricanes and other phenomena, the post September 11th response to sudden and unknown terrorist attacks, maybe audiences need this kind of story up there on the big screen to process feelings about it all. That’s what the producer says and he may well be right.
By the way, when we say ‘on the big screen’, we should note that it would be a great pity just to see Cloverfield on a screen which is smaller than we are. It is meant to be seen on a big screen with the stereo sound vibrating all around us. We should be there in the middle of it.
Actually, the film takes about twenty minutes to get going. That is, we introduced to the 20-something characters through some video camera footage dated April 27th and then, in great (too much?) detail, at a farewell party in upper Manhattan on May 22nd. Just when one is tempted to say ‘enough already!’, there is reverberating quake and the whole movie changes. The monster has appeared and, in the vein of Godzilla or Gorgo or those huge rampaging monsters, wreaks havoc on the city.
What makes this film completely different and a tour-de-force of film-making is that we know the characters who are not just going to be mere monster-fodder. And one of them is holding the camera and, for the best part of an hour, we are visually limited to what his camera can see. Everything is limited to the span of the camera lens, sometimes seeing a lot, often just missing out (especially the monster itself which is now and then quickly glimpsed), confined to the dark in subway tunnels, with the night light revealing the attack of some mysterious creatures, or following the large group of people fleeing and the small group which is trying to get back to the apartment to rescue their friend.
This means that the technology is up-to-date: cameras, cell phones, emergency power generators that work… And a significant placement for Nokia! The producer refers to this phenomenon of having the ability to photograph everything and put it on the net, the ‘Youtubification’ of today’s culture.
The psychological effect of all this for the audience is that everything is seen (except for some TV helicopter footage) generally from the ground level where the New York buildings loom (and are seen to be destroyed as is the Brooklyn Bridge), from the small powerless position of ordinary human beings. When we finally see the monster, we stare up at its towering figure and gaping maw just as the camera lens does.
Godzilla, War Of The Worlds, The Invasion, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, The Day After Tomorrow, I Am Legend, even World Trade Center and, now, Cloverfield. What is this trend mirroring? What is its challenge?