It isn’t every day that we see what we recognize today as two names in big box office moviemakers from American film collaborating to make a movie. Eleven years ago, this came to pass. J.J. Abrams directed and produced the Steven Spielberg produced movie Super 8 (2011). Abrams wrote the screenplay for what feels to be a nostalgic look back at childhood and place mixed with the feeling of a thriller coupled with monsters.
The story of Super 8 follows a group of young teenagers in the fictional town of 1979 Lillian, Ohio. Filmed in Weirton, West Virginia and surrounding areas, the group aims to film a homemade movie using super 8 cameras and film available at the time. The group, including Joel Courtney as Joe Lamb, Riley Griffiths as Charles Kaznyk, Ryan Lee as Cary McCarthy and Gabriel Basso as Martin Read, capture a train derailment while filming a movie scene overnight in their fictional Ohio town.
A subtext of the movie includes the mourning of loss that has occurred before the movie has started. For Joe Lamb and his father, police deputy Jack Lamb of the Lillian police force, as portrayed by Kyle Chandler, lost a mother and wife Elizabeth to a workplace accident. Alice Dainard and her father Louis, as portrayed by Elle Fanning and Ron Eldard, respectively, are cast in the awkward position of being linked to that loss for Jack because Elizabeth was working a shift for Louis when Elizabeth died. Jack blames Louis for Elizabeth’s death.
Joe and Alice become emotionally close, despite the above reality and Joe’s coping with the loss of his mother. As the train derailment destroys the location where the teenagers were making their film while also separating them temporarily, they regroup to find their gravely ill biology teacher, Dr. Thomas Woodward in the wreckage. Crates of strange white cubes are found as well, which Woodward warns them to forget and ignore. The kids flee an Air Force convoy, with Colonel Nelec finding an empty super 8 film box in his team’s perusal of the wreckage. Glynn Turman portrayed Dr. Woodward. Noah Emmerich portrayed Colonel Nelec.
A series of weird events commence from here, which includes suspicious behavior by Nemec to the detriment of deputy Jack Lamb professionally and the personal relationship between Jack and his son Joe. The teenagers, meanwhile, engage the help of Charles Kaznyk’s older sister, Jen Kaznyk. The support requested aims to help address the loss of pets, irregularities in electrical service, and other activities that follow the train accident. AJ Michalka portrayed Jen Kaznyk. The story develops from here with plenty of adventure to sustain the interpersonal narratives established with these characters.
There is much to appreciate and enjoy in the Steven Spielberg style of movie that is Super 8. The focus on childhood experiences and viewpoints reflects the strength of the storytelling. There’s feeling and cleverness whose aim reaches for the likes of E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (1982), The Goonies (1985) or Stand by Me (1986) without necessarily landing on the magic of any of these. The film does feel to me like the most Steven Spielberg movie I’ve seen that was directed by somebody else, which in this case is good. I grant Super 8 as directed by J.J. Abrams 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Saturday, January 15, 2021
Matt Lynn Digital 