Nevahs forgets.

Behind the Lens: Cloverfield

I was going to write a simple review of the film Cloverfield (which I saw a week ago, but have been wrestling with in my head since), but I could not quite pin down what I wanted to say. I liked the film, no doubts there. I could dare say I come close to loving the hell out of it. But I could not say exactly WHY. Then it hit me. I kept coming back to one line: "People will want to know. . . how it all went down." This one line says so much about the filmmakers' aims and goals, and simultaneously comments on the current direction of popular and media culture, and it echoes through much of the film both thematically and in specific scenes. So, here we are. Cloverfield as cultural lens.

The plot can be summarized thusly: Giant Monster Wrecks House in New York. Most else is superfluous, in the general "this is what happens" scheme of things. But, for sake of expansion of purpose, I'll elaborate a bit more. The movie purports to be "found footage", a "Digital SD card" (which is a bit of a misnomer, as the D in SD stands for digital) recovered by the US Department of Defense from the "site formerly known as 'Central Park'", referring to an incident known as "Cloverfield". So, from the start, there is a sense that something big has happened in New York, big enough to warrant the renaming of Central Park. (Also, Lost fans, there is a blip flash of the Dharma logo during the DoD watermark intro. Clue, or JJ Abrams fucking with people? U-DECIDE!) The "tape" proceeds to document the going-away party thrown for Rob, a young yuppie type who is going to Japan to take a high-profile marketing job, and is attended by a well-maintained balance of hipster stereotypes and ciphers, including Rob's brother Jason, Jason's girlfriend Lily, his friend "Hud" (who is the man behind the camera for the film, and serves as a sort of narrator [and is named for a first person video game term H.U.D., or "heads up display"]), Marlena, whom Hud has a thing for, and a whole host of nameless pretty people. Also attending is Beth, a girl whom Rob has been good friends with for a while, and, we find out through blips in the video which show the footage that was taped over for the party (and aftermath), whom he has recently slept with and then not called since. In the midst of all this dramadramadrama, a giant monster shows up and wrecks house in the city. There is panic, evacuations, deaths and deaths and deaths, 9/11 evocations, miniature parasitic creatures that are very reminiscent of the Xenomorphs from the Alien films and Bugs from Starship Troopers, bodily explosions, more deaths, and one VERY pissed off monster of unknown origin, species, and motives. Much destruction follows. And the camera is running intermittently through out. (One of the complaints from some is that the movie takes place over a 7 hour period, and there's no way the camera's battery lasts that long. Thing is, the camera is not running the whole time. The actual footage is only the 70+ minutes that makes up the film proper. So, the battery only really ran for a little over an hour. Myth: BUSTED.)

The thing I want to talk about though, revolves around a very specific scene right after the proverbial shit hits the proverbial fan. (This is what the first trailer for the film was, shown before Transformers without a title.) During the party, there is what seems to be an earthquake, and many of the kids gather on the roof of the building. A massive explosion happens in the distance and they all flee in a panic for the street, only to see the Statue of Liberty's head flying through the air and come to a rest in the street in front of the building. What happens is very interesting, and very of the moment: the minute it stops moving, onlookers come forward with camera phones and digital cameras (including the camera that provides the audience's POV) and begin to film the head.

That scene, plus the line mentioned above, combine to make a statement about modern society and how people in our culture deal with reality. Shakespeare said "All the world's a stage," and this attitude has been taken to the extreme now, as people need the lens of a camera to make things "real". Any given situation can be said to "be something like a movie" or "like something from TV," to the extent that people LIVE like they are characters in a film. People will not believe something that has not been filmed, analyzed, poked, prodded, and dissected ad nauseum. (And yes, I realize the irony of that statement in an essay analyzing a film. Fuck off, grasshopper.) Reality TV is only a small symptom of this, but it's the most obvious one. See also: celebrity gossip shows.

This plays into one of the major complaints people who dislike the movie have: the unlikability of the characters. The problem here is that I don't see the characters as being all that unlikable. We don't know them enough to like or dislike them. They are the barest of sketches, just enough so that we can feel bad about them getting killed or maimed, or to provide them with motivation for their actions later in the film. The problem here is that they are TOO real. Like mentioned before, there is an astonishing amount of people who act like they are the main character in a constantly filming movie of their life. While there is nothing wrong with this approach to life, it leads to somewhat of a disconnect with how they actually appear to be. I posit that if five random people were placed into the situation of Cloverfield, that they would not act significantly different than the actual characters of the film. People believe they are more interesting and significant in the grand scheme of life than they actually are, and can't see the irony of not finding other ordinary people uninteresting. A pair of ducks, yes.

I don't think this is where the interesting things about the film end. There is much to be said about the 9/11 parallels (and much has been said elsewhere, believe me), and the viral marketing behind the film was a thing of genius. As it stands, I also think there is a strange commentary on the film making process inherent in the film, whether intended by the filmmakers or not. All filmmakers have to, by definition, have the attitude that "People will want to know. . . how it all went down." Otherwise, what is the point of making a movie? The lens of the camera both records and reflects, and the focus isn't always what you think it is.

Victorian 1.

"M'lud," said the gentleman, "it is not often that one finds himself in the presence of such a fine and honorable personage as yourself."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," replied the judge, "I find myself in such a presence every time I look in the mirror." And the court laughed at his wit and gaiety. Oh my, how they laughed.

Then they all perished of cholera.

Quoting the Cube*

I am currently in the process of writing 2 blog entries of film review and analysis (on Cloverfield and The Fountain, respectively), and a short story about ghosts and writing, and 2 different songs, and still attempting to piece together a story in my head about dealing with the death of a loved one and robots (I AM AMBITIOUS AND FULL OF BEES!), thus you, my wonderful reader[s], are receiving the following list of quotes that I A) like quite a bit, and B) tend to apply to my own personal world-view. And you know very well that all that I say and do is right.**

So anyway, more substantial content coming in the near future, but for now... courage! And interesting epigraph-worthy material...


"What is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the Idiot is not worth my care."
:: William Blake

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
:: Philip K. Dick

"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via.
(There is no easy way from the earth to the stars.)"
:: Seneca

"The real secret of magic is that the world is made of words, and that if you know the words that the world is made of you can make of it whatever you wish."
:: Terence McKenna

"See, now! Our sentence is up "
:: Grant Morrison

"When you start worrying about whether someone likes you, or whether you're going to get what you want, or whether you'll ever become the person you want to be, just remember: we're all doomed."
:: Warren Ellis

"I know I can write my way out of this."
:: Blake Schwarzenbach

"A tradition is a past that distorts the present."
:: Albert Camus

""In the beginning the universe was created. This made a lot of people angry and has widely been considered as a bad move."
:: Douglas Adams

"Nought's had, all's spent,
Where our desire is got without content.
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy."
:: William Shakespeare

"Knowing and being are mutually exclusive."
:: Nietzsche

"Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal."
:: Oscar Wilde

"To perpetuate one's name, one must carve it on a heavy stone and sink to the bottom of the sea; depths last longer than heights."
:: Herman Melville

"The world's a fucking brilliant place to live in."
:: Douglas Coupland

"It is not certain that our time has lacked gods; many have been proposed, usually stupid or cowardly ones."
:: Albert Camus

"To define is to limit."
:: Oscar Wilde

"Buy the ticket; Take the ride."
:: Hunter S. Thompson


Plan on seeing more like these at some point in the future. I like collecting interesting quotes.


* Kind of like Gleaming the Cube, but less skateboarding and more literature. Still involves lots of yelling of the word "RADICAL!"

** This statement might be insanely untrue.

In Which I Make a Triumphant Return and Declare Myself Lord and Master of All I Survey

Maybe I should write something in here. I feel neglectful and ashamed at my lack of productivity towards my worshipful masses. (Hi, Mom!) The pop culture landscape has been rife, RIFE I SAY!, with subjects worthy of venom, bile, and excoriation, and yet I have remained silent, content in my place of "Fuck that, I would rather keep (re)reading Douglas Coupland and David Foster Wallace, while the world falls apart around me." Which, admittedly, is a rather ostrich-esque way of dealing with things. But screw you, I am the master of this particular domain (not in the internet "domain name" sense, but that's just splitting rabbits), and I will say WHAT I want, WHEN I want, and NOBODY, you hear me meatball?, is going to tell me otherwise!
.....
Sorry, I went all Master Shake for a second, I needed a space to breathe.

BUT ANYWAY, like I said, there's been a lot that has pissed me off, and I would go into exactly what, but then this would become a fount of negativity, and if there's anything that there is too much of on the internet, it's porn. Followed by cat pictures. Then negativity. And I'd like to think that, today, in this rather expansive and (some might say rarely) jolly mood that I am in, I'd like to balance that equation with some positivity. So, without further ado (ok, maybe SOME ado), I will write on what my favorite things of the past Year of Their Lord Two Thousand and Seven are. Bear in mind, this is just one lone (handsome intelligent and awesome) man's opinion, and that it might not necessarily agree with yours. In that case, leave a comment, telling me I'm wrong and why, and then fuck off and start your own blog.* But yes, favorite things, here we go:

Favorite Movie of 2007:
HOT FUZZ
Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg are awesome. That could be the only sentence in this section, and it would still be a perfect encapsulation of why I love this film. They have made two almost perfect films now, Shaun of the Dead and this one, and also produced previously the great BBC series Spaced, and I am now willing to follow them everywhere they go. I mean, jeez, even their contribution to Grindhouse, the fake trailer for a British horror movie Don't!, was genius.

Hot Fuzz was a note-perfect parody of the distinctly American genre of "Buddy Cop" action movies, but set in a distinctly non-American setting: a rural village in England. Skewering every cliche and trope that the genre is known for in its first two-thirds, while also playing as a wonderful mystery with elements of the giallo, the movie then takes an abrupt, Adaptation-esque turn, and BECOMES what it was parodying: a thrill-ride action movie. Except this time, the audience is in on the joke, and what would have seemed ridiculous earlier now makes complete sense in the world that Pegg and Wright have established. As full of laughs as Shaun of the Dead (which I maintain is, along with the first Back to the Future, one of the few perfect screenplays**), it's not only the funniest movie of the year, it's one of the best, period.

honorable mentions: Grindhouse, American Gangster, Knocked Up


Favorite Album of 2007:
Motion City Soundtrack - Even If It Kills Me
I wholly reserve the right to change this at some future date, as I am nothing if not capricious about music. But, as of right now, Motion City Soundtrack's latest entry in their catalog of goodness is the number one on my own personal Billboard chart. While not as rough as their earlier work, and without the apologetic air of "I fucked up" of their last album, the pop sheen production on this album, along with the much more... well, not overtly positive, but less mopey lyrics, I suppose?... makes Justin Pierre and company's latest effort the one I keep coming back to out of the albums that have come out this year.

The themes hit the usual for Pierre: love, loss, love lost, but this time, it ends on a good note. His struggles with his chemical dependencies and mental instability have been well-chronicled, both on the previous records and elsewhere, but his new-found sobriety seems to have coincided with a brighter outlook in his love-life, as the songs "It Had to Be You", "Antonia" and the title track evidence. The stand out track to me, though, is number 4, "Last Night", if only for the bridge section, which contains the lines "My body aches, it heaves it shakes / all somersaults for so-called art. And I still don't know exactly who I am / I never will, amen." No one knows exactly who they are, and it takes a very strong person to admit that. This album is a great accomplishment for the band, and a stand-out for the year in general.

Honorable mentions: Radiohead - In Rainbows, Sundowner - Four One Five Two, Say Anything - In Defense of the Genre


Favorite Book of 2007:
The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland is a writer I have been following since high school. To give a better picture of that statement: the only other writers who also fall in that category are William Gibson and JRR Tolkien. My reading taste has changed... not drastically, but has... I suppose the phrase would be "been refined" since then. And yet, Coupland remains. He endures. And this year, he put out one of his best novels since Girlfriend in a Coma (which is in my top 5 all-time).***

Honorable mentions: Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis, Rant by Chuck Palahniuk, I am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert


Favorite Comic/Graphic work of 2007:
The Nightly News by Jonathan Hickman

This one was the hardest for me to decide, because there was quite a few great things to choose from this year. And it was made even harder by how much OLDER things I read this year, which confused in my head what came out when, and so forth. As it stand, Jonathan Hickman's mini-series from Image, The Nightly News, keeps popping out in my head as the one. The very distinct art style, and very "controversial" subject matter, kept me interested and involved through it's running time.****

Honorable mentions: LoEG: the Black Dossier by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, Casanova by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba/Fabio Moon, Fell by Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith

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SO. Yes. I will be writing in here more. So, check back... I dunno, a lot. There'll eventually be more posts. And they will be fun. And full of awesome. Much like me!


* Make sure to link to me, and tell me, and then we'll have a circle of disagreement. It'll be AWESOME.

** I'll probably do an entire post on my views on this in the future.

*** More info coming.

**** More info coming.