Super 8 (2011)

Much of the hubbub around J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 hasn’t been about the movie’s content so much as it’s been about the nostalgia of the whole ordeal. While I would be incorrect if I claimed the film wasn’t meant to evoke—nay, rip off—the early films of Steven Spielberg, I fully believe Abrams’ film works terrifically even without that context. I am not one for ’80s nostalgia, as it’s awful hard for someone to feel nostalgic about an era which they were not alive to witness. That doesn’t mean I don’t love films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., it just means a film like Super 8 doesn’t exactly take me back to days gone by. After all, I didn’t see a whole lot of movies in the ’80s. The film doesn’t just pay homage to a long-lost genre; it proves the old formula can still be just as effective.

The film revolves around a group of young’uns who are setting out to make a monster movie for a Super 8 film festival. The boy in charge of sound and make-up on the film is Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney), who is the son of local deputy Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler). His mother died in a factory accident a few months before, and now he has a crush on Alice (Elle Fanning), who is acting in the film.  When they go out in the middle of the night to shoot a scene for their film, they end up witnessing a violent train crash. In the days after the disaster, a series of strange and frightening occurrences begin in their fictional town of Lillian, Ohio. As the incidents in town grow stranger and more alarming, the kids begin to suspect that what they saw wasn’t just your typical train crash.

To say much more about the film would be a disservice to you all. That’s not to say the whole film relies on one great twist, but the pleasure of it all comes from watching the story unfold without any knowledge of what’s to come. This was a film made—and sold—by people who understand that the best movie experiences often come when little-to-nothing is known about the film in question. To sit and watch a film while knowing absolutely nothing about what’s coming next is a joy that is experienced very rarely in today’s Hollywood. For that reason alone Super 8 should be embraced.

Super 8 also has some of the most engaging child performances I’ve seen in recent memory. Their dialogue—written so well by Abrams—barely feels synthetic at all. In most films, the children feel as if they were thrust onto the same set merely for the benefit of the film. The kids in Super 8 feel as if they have known each other since childhood. Fanning, who plays a newcomer to the normally boys-only group, is absolutely revelatory. The seemingly natural friendship of the central kids can also be extrapolated to the surrounding community, which is a wonderful character in itself.

The common complaint directed at Super 8 will likely be that it’s more of an early Spielberg collage than something that is wholly the creation of Abrams, but I argue that there’s more of a personal stamp on this film than most will give it credit for. Yes, certain shots seem ripped from other movies—Close Encounters specifically—yet Abrams seems conscious of what he’s trying to do. Again, I didn’t grow up with Spielberg’s films; I merely discovered them later on in life. Where most homage films seem like cheap imitations, Super 8 fully embraces the genre. It isn’t just a fan of these older films; it wants to be one of them.

A few things keep Super 8 from crossing over into perfection, and most of these come in the film’s final 20 minutes. For nearly all of its running time, the movie gets just about everything right. Then Abrams seems to have some trouble with the fact that his movie has to end at some point. The great challenge of his reliance on mystery is that it puts a whole lot of pressure on the payoffs, should they ever come. Watching the story of Super 8 unfold is so unique and fun that we expect Abrams to hit the climax out of the park. When it turns out to simply be an RBI double (analogies!), there’s a feeling it all could have been a bit grander. Yet the film’s ending ultimately succeeds for one simple reason: unlike most movies, it quits while it’s ahead. Too often—especially this year—I’ve seen movies drag on and on with endless scenes of dull denouement. It’s best to leave questions unanswered than to answer them all unsatisfactorily, and Abrams seems to understand that.

J.J. Abrams is destined to be a great filmmaker because he knows how dazzling popcorn cinema can—and should—be. Above all, Super 8 is terrific because it looks, feels and sounds like great cinema. (In particular, the train crash scene is likely the best sequence I’ve seen in any film this year.) This will likely not be the only film Abrams is remembered for at the end of his career, but so far it’s the best one he’s done. Of course he’ll continue to make Star Trek and Mission: Impossible-type films, but neither of those have the distinctly personal feel of Super 8. If he keeps exploring what he can do with original material, he’ll have a very fine career ahead of him indeed.

GRADE: A-