A destruction movie with the purest intentions

Rating: 8/10 (19 January 2008)

There's been a lot of talk going around that Cloverfield is a creature feature that tries, and fails, to put a humanistic face on the experience of destruction. But Cloverfield, which is filmed entirely with a hand-held camera operated by several of the main actors, does not need to be a humanistic; it's just human. With its characters' almost total lack of information, its sensory limitations, and its shortness, Cloverfield presents a truly real view of destruction. We cannot see everything, can see almost nothing, and that is where the horrific truth lies. Its success lies in its ability to capture how weak humans are in the face of terror, how insignificant and cursory our sufferings.
No, the acting isn't terrific; no, the writing isn't even close to original; no, not all the plot points click together just so. But what is clear here, and what lasts and lingers and is remembered, is the producer's and director's deep affection for monstrosity, for fear, for buildings falling down and people being sucked up into abysmal misery. Cloverfield is all at once visceral and clever, shamelessly entertaining and uncompromisingly scary, emotionally sadistic and wisely comic. Maybe everyone, in the end, does die; but no recent movie has offered as much proof that blood is still pumping through American cinema's veins.