‘Super 8’ is compelling moviemaking
Published 8:00 am Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Super 8
Rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-if action and violence, language and some drug use).
Super 8 is uncomplicated, nostalgic-infused, and delightfully frenetic when it isn’t showing how life was in our innocent years. It is a summer delight that requires nary a heavy thought or an anti-depressant after viewing. J. J. Abrams, of TV’s Lost and the classy Star Trek (the prequel), brings us, with Steven Spielberg’s official producorial blessing, this beguiling tale of middle-teenagers who live in a rather drab mill town in Ohio in 1979.
The film opens on an unhappy time, 12 year old Joe Lamb (new-comer Joel Courtney) has lost his mother in an industrial accident. His father, Jack (Joel Chandler), is a deputy Sheriff and was never a very “active” father. Something happens that seems odd and it takes half the film to find out why…but that is just fine and dandy…as there is plenty to keep our minds occupied.
Joe and his pals are filmmakers. With a Super 8 camera, they are making a movie about zombies. The bossy “director” is a large framed lug of a kid named Charles (Riley Griffiths). He has asked a girl, Alice, to play the part of “the wife.” The girl is played by Elle Fanning (sister of Dakota). Think on it: one girl and a pack of pre-pubescent boys: pure pharomonal combustability.
Let me pause here and tell you that there is a little scene within a scene where Alice, who acts like she has really no interest in film making but reluctantly agrees to provide the wheels (illegally since she does not have a license) to go “on location,” is compelled to play a role in the zombie film. Alice is asked (by Charles) to play the role of the wife — telling her “husband” of her love. Alice does so in a rehearsal scene. The boys are not expecting much from this “amateur.” But Alice is played by a Fanning and the boys — and surely everyone in the audience — drops their respective jaws when Elle — I mean Alice – demonstrates her substantial acting chops. Priceless.
While filming this scene a train speeds past but a speeding pickup crashes head-on with the train causing a spectacularly explosive derailment. This scene is truly Spielbergian and I found myself giggling and cowering like a fifteen year old while watching it. The zowie factor appeals to one’s inner adolescent.
Anyway, it turns out that ET is on that train. Well, maybe not ET — more like a giant homesick spider from outer space — but you get the picture.
The kids are intrigued and Joe eventually wants to 1) learn more about Alice, 2) uncover the mystery about the train wreck, 3) learn more about Alice, 4) figure out what is going on with disappearing townsfolk and the pilfering of machine parts, and 5)learn more about Alice.
Of course, the adults are spoil sports and dad Jack wants to crimp Joe’s style — so we have all the ingredients for a film which turns everyone in the audience into a fourteen year old.
Super 8 is like a roller coaster ride of past memories and delights. There are some really funny bits, one is when one of the kids declares that, “Drugs are really bad!” You have to see the set-up to appreciate it. It is precious.
Super 8 is not perfect and it will never be a “classic” but I don’t think it is supposed to be Abrams’ masterpiece. Rather, it is his homage to Spielberg and, at the same time, a fun summer flick.
The final scene is so profoundly “Close Encounters of the Third Kind“ that cynics might be tempted to roll their eyes, but for those of us willing to release our inner-child for a wild ride, it is sweet, compelling, and gosh-darn entertaining.
Super 8 earns four and a half out of five bow ties.