For those who haven’t seen it yet, here is a film that blends the old with the supernatural from the mind of Lost’s J.J. Abrams with a little help from Steven Spielberg:
Super 8 (Elle Fanning, Joel Courtney, Kyle Chandler, Riley Griffiths, Ryan Lee) – A film that has been compared to many of the teenage coming–of-age movies with a science fiction twist, Super 8 comes from the mind of writer/director J.J. Abrams (the Star Trek movie prequel; Mission Impossible III; and TV’s Lost, Alias, and Felicity). With help from Steven Spielberg, who co-produced the film, Abrams tells the story of a group of nerdy high-school students shooting a Super 8 film in the hopes of getting chosen for the Cleveland Film Festival circa 1978. The time is important because it both sets us in an age before video cameras, the Internet, and cell phones with video capabilities while signaling a simpler time. Charles (Riley Griffiths) is the director of the movie. The rest of the kids serve as his actors and crew.
But the star of the movie is the talented Alice (Elle Fanning, Dakota’s sister), the girl everyone salivates over at the school. While she is reluctant to be in this amateur production, she nonetheless agrees to take on the critical female role while displaying a real knack for acting. The guys and Alice head out late at night to film their clandestine movie when something strange occurs: a train accident that seemingly happens without notice. Anxious to get atmosphere and color, better known as “production value” in the process, the kids film the action and the wreckage. But as the plot thickens around the accident, odd things happen all over the town. There’s an alien being, a creature straight out of a Spielberg movie. Is it hell-bent for evil or is he just trying to “phone home?” Is this an Abrams film or a Spielberg film?
Meanwhile, the movie becomes the sub-text of the film while the mishaps and mayhem in the town take over as the major plot. One of the kids, Joe (Joel Courtney), is the protagonist of the movie. His mother recently died, and everyone is worried about him. He actually might be the most well adjusted person in the film but he is struggling with the loss of his mom while helping Charles with the movie and connecting with Alice. It is pretty obvious that Alice likes him (much to Charles’ dismay) and the two spend a lot of time together since Joe is the make-up artist. His father, played by Friday Night Lights’ Kyle Chandler, is a local cop and he doesn’t want his son involved with her for what seems to be complicated reasons. It turns out that her dad (played by veteran Ron Eldard) was the man who drove the car that killed his wife, Joe’s mother. Yet another sub-text emerges.
So we have three intersecting stories going on – the Super 8 movie, the sci-fi alien invasion, and the family drama. It all works as long as you don’t think about it too much. If this story were dark, the invaders would kill everyone, resolving the drama and killing all the kids. In a comedy, the kids would produce a billion dollar grossing film with the alien as the star being interviewed on the Today show. In an Abrams-Spielberg film, we have empathy for everyone and the ending has to be happy. Right? Super 8 is great because it is unique and brings us fascinating characters, relatively unknown actors, and an interesting plot that never drags.