The Story
Cloverfield: It’s The End of the World and I Feel Nauseous
Cloverfield, now in theaters. Courtesy of Paramount Films.
Cloverfield, a film directed by Matt Reeves, tells the story of a group of young Manhattanites caught in the midst of a monster attack. The film, shot documentary style on a single hand-held video camera, follows this group as they attempt to rescue a friend who is trapped inside her apartment across town.
Two of The DSJ’s star reviewers who recently wrote opposing reviews of There Will Be Blood decided to check out the much-hyped horror flick Cloverfield together. Instead of writing separate reviews, the movie buffs discussed the film over AIM. Their discussion follows.
Huber: So what did you think of Cloverfield, Mr. Danvers?
Danvers: My esteemed colleague, I thought Cloverfield tried to capture some of the magic of The Blair Witch Project with a big special effects budget, but didn't deliver the goods. What did you think?
Huber: I never saw The Blair Witch Project so I can't really speak about the similarities between the two films. But I think it really speaks well of the current state of Hollywood if they're looking towards indie films as inspiration for more mainstream fare.
Danvers: Part of the thrill of the movie was the lack of an explanatory framework as to what the monster was, why it was there, and how it could be defeated. But the movie skirted these questions by superimposing a standard teen romance story over top of what was of real interest: supernatural phenomena. What did you think of the romance that occurred between the film’s two main characters?
Huber: I don't know, I'm kind of a sap so I dug the romance…The thrill of this movie is that it's completely shot on a handheld camera by different characters.
The movie is supposed to have a personal, intimate feel, so it made sense to include the romance…and that also helps to explain why so much of the monster is left unexplained.
We're right there with these characters, seeing the same things and asking the same questions. We don't get an omniscient view and the suspense, even if it's contrived, is really cool to experience in a mainstream film.
Danvers: Let's talk about the perspective. The thrill, for me, stemmed from trying to piece together a story the way we naturally do in everyday life, from a limited amount of subjective information. I was constantly trying to outsmart the characters in order to figure out what was going on.
But, don't you want characters that are curious about the things we are curious about as audience members? Wouldn't it be more fun to have a scientifically minded character, who wants to find out where the monster came from?
Huber: …Partly how the personal tone is established is due to the fact that no character takes the time to stop and ask about where this monster came from. They're scared sh*tless! They don't have time to stop and ask questions about this creature. They need to keep moving.
Danvers: …I would say that part of the problem was the characters weren't really scared sh*tless enough. They kept moving, and so they always had something to focus on. Real fear, at least for me, comes from not knowing how do deal with problems.
If they had been trapped in a room for a bit, like in M. Night Shyamalan's Signs, I think it would have helped the suspense and fear. Were you scared at all when you saw the movie?
Huber: I was definitely involved in the film and interested in seeing how the characters escaped Manhattan. But my concern for the characters ended after seeing how the film betrayed reality.
We’re forced to take on the characters’ point of view. So, even though the film explores the same fantastic genre that Godzilla films did, it also demands that we see the characters as normal humans. Yet, they are suspiciously good at dealing with the little monsters that they encounter during the escape. The characters even miraculously survive a helicopter crash. These suspensions of reality really bothered me.
Danvers: In terms of style, I thought the film was kind of all over the board. Sappy romance and horror/thriller are two obvious genres, but added to that you have some campy humor from the cameraman character, Hud (T.J. Miller). His continuous attempts to hit on Marlena (Lizzy Caplan), his nervous patter, and his consistent ineptitude lend a certain awkward humor to the movie.
I got into some of the humor, but can't decide whether the film was trying to do too much. In some cases the humor may have undermined the drama and the horror, because the characters were too cavalier.
Huber: I don't mind the humor because it came from that one character. Hud is the comic relief and that's cool. I mean, his sense of humor helps to explain why he carries a camera around with him. I have a difficult time believing that one of those "cavalier" characters would have carried the camera around with them for so long.
… But, getting back to the scariness of this film, isn't there a thrill in seeing people trying to survive on a very primal level? Watching them run around?
Danvers: Running around all the time is like ADD. You get to start a lot of stuff, but you never stick around to develop any of it. As I mentioned earlier, I was curious as to what the monsters were, where they came from, etc. None of these only marginally deep questions can be answered when you're constantly running.
Huber: Doesn't running around provide some excitement to their fight against the unknown?
Danvers: OK, in all fairness, the frantic thing was kind of the whole gimmick of the movie, but it still seems to me that you ought to vary moments of high speed and intensity with slower moments. Otherwise you are talking in a monotone, even if it is a loud, fast monotone.
Huber: Well, for a gimmicky movie, I was pretty impressed with Cloverfield. I thought it was fun and interesting to see a major production done in such an avant-garde style. Your final thoughts?
Danvers: I think we probably both agree that this was not a bad movie. My biggest complaint was some motion-sickness induced by the camera angle, but it was more fun and interesting than your average action thriller. You want to give it a rating or something?
Huber: Yeah, I give Cloverfield three stars out of four. Would you like to give it a rating using the same scale I used? Or are you going to use a completely different scale?
Danvers: I would give it a 71 percent on a William and Mary grading system (no grade inflation). That's at least a 78 percent at UVA.
Huber: I can't top that.