Cloverfield

Nothing about Cloverfield is particularly original. It’s a Godzilla-esque plot with Blair Witch Project cinematography and love in the background just to make it interesting. But it works. Well. Written and produced by Drew Goddard (Lost) and directed by Matt Reeves (The Pallbearer) Cloverfield is, like The Blair Witch Project, the playback of footage discovered after the incident. The incident being a monster terrifying Manhattan. The footage begins as coverage of a friend’s surprise going-away party and turns into the pursuit of a group of ever-dwindling friends to save another on the other side of the city (and the epicenter of danger). The monster, though little more than a MacGuffin, is terrifying, but the camera is the true source of terror. As in Blair... the use of cinema vérité obscures, hides, and ultimately confuses, emphasizing the anxious claustrophobia felt as the diminishing group scrambles through the tunnels and rubble of a disintegrating New York City. But my favourite part is the writing. There is nothing particularly memorable about the dialogue (aside from passing the monster off as “a terrible thing”), the strength of the writing lies in Goddard’s (dare I say, postmodern) approach. Like Lost, the plot is not driven by the given details, but by the lack thereof; by the who, what, wheres that the film provokes.

Good - not heavy, but fun.

Directed by Matt Reeves