Cloverfield

Cloverfield is about fear's overwhelming presence in our lives. Fear can cripple us all. We all walk around in fear for a good chunk of our lives, just waiting for something to happen (especially since 9/11). I am not saying that it is apparent all the time, but in the back of our minds I believe we all have real fears. Cloverfiend plays on those fears. It does not try to explain what is attacking New York City, or why. Those are irrelevant questions. The only thing that matters is that something very scary is killing people, lots of people.

This film puts us there as it is happening. We are part of the experience. We see what the characters see, and feel what they feel. It is all about perspective. The film was shot with a camcorder, so be aware that it is shaky and jerky. A bunch of friends are at a get together for a friend who is leaving for Japan. During the party something that feels like an earthquake happens. Then a giant explosion, and all the people that we have been getting to know must now run for their lives. What they thought was important no longer carries any value. Tragedy makes us realize that very few things are truly important to us. They are scared out of their minds as they slowly learn more about what is happening. But again, the film is not about why or why. It is about how we as humans experience fear and catastrophe, but taken to the ultimate extreme.

Cloverfield is as tense a movie as I have seen in a long time. Some may be turned off, or just made sick, by the shooting style. I think it is brilliant. It has been called Blair Witch meets Godzilla, but Cloverfield is far, far superior to either. This film is very entertaining. It truly gives you a unique experience (not unlike the last film I saw, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). We are not only put in NYC during some sort of horrific attack, but we as the audience experience the fear and the tension much more than your standard disaster flick with a third-person omniscient perspective. Cloverfield is an existentialist film. Sometimes horrible things happen, and it doesn't really matter why. We just have to deal with them as they come. All that is relevant during times of horrible disaster is survival; our own survival and the survival of those we love.

Is it all hopeless? Are we all just going to die? How do I stop being afraid? Fear grips us and does not let us go.