“Cloverfield” on DVD (Review)

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Last summer, I went to a 12:01 a.m. screening of “Transformers.” Why movie houses start movies a minute after midnight on opening day and not just midnight is beyond me; midnight is technically the next day, you don’t need to add on another minute to make it really, really the next day.

Though I was there with all the hardcores at the “Transformers” screening, I wasn’t terribly excited about seeing the film. I’m not by any loose definition of the term a fan of Michael Bay, nor has my esteem for the Robots in Disguise grown in the past few years; to date, I haven’t made it through the entire second season of the cartoon on DVD, and I’ve owned the set for almost 5 years now. But it was one of those odd weeks where we had a day off on a Tuesday — it being the 4th of July — so I thought I’d stay up late and catch a flick.

What struck me most about my movie-going experience that night, apart from Megan Fox’s absolutely sublime midriff, was the teaser trailer shown before the film for a then-untitled monster flick, shot only with a hand-held cameras. I’d heard absolutely nothing about this film leading up to the moment the trailer hit the screen. And considering the trailer’s money shot is of Lady Liberty’s head bouncing down the street, you’d think someone would’ve spilled his guts to any number of the movie geek sites I frequent.

But that was the point. Producer J.J. Abrams wanted what would ultimately be called “Cloverfield” to blindside the audience, particularly the Internet-savvy goofballs like me who spoil every plot point long before a film’s release. We’d been pwned, and then we spent the next six agonizing months trying to make up for lost time, trolling viral marketing sites, pouring over the trailer frame-by-frame and bad-mouthing every working title (”Monstrous,” “Slusho,” “Cheese”) until opening day.

When it was released on 1-18-08, of course I was there for the obligatory midnight-plus-one showing. The ArcLight Cinemas usher/greeter warned the audience prior to the film that the hand-held camerawork might make them sick. I found that irritating. The conceit behind the cinematography in “Cloverfield” is that one of the characters, Hud, is filming his friend’s going-away party, which is crashed by a Giant Monster. Hud not being a professional cameraman, the shooting style of the film appears to be relatively amateurish, but there is a cinematographer credited in the film. Watch the special features on the DVD, and you’ll see him; you won’t even have to go frame-by-frame. The visual approach of the film was planned out by people who know what they’re doing, not just some young actor they handed a camera to on the set. The point is, if you’re made to feel sick by “Cloverfield,” it’s because the movie works. You’ve been transported, friendo. That’s kinda what movies are supposed to do.

Watching “Cloverfield” this afternoon, I still got goosebumps when the Giant Monster begins wrecking shop. My home theater is pretty spartan, too — a 27″ analog TV with a PS2 that doubles as a DVD player. But this film in particular is a child of post-9/11 amateur footage. It almost feels more at home on a TV than a movie screen. The rough edges, the choppy editing, the odd angles — these heighten the realism. We’ve reached a point in our film language that is in direct contrast to time-tested conventions of naturalism. As viewers, we find that digital video — though loaded with image noise — seems hyperreal because we’re used to seeing it document reality, not the fantasy that’s captured on lush, vibrant, forgiving film stock.

The DVD for the film is fairly light on features — the standard commentary, featurettes and deleted scenes. The two alternate endings are a great example of how even a film like this has been test-marketed to death; twice you get the same climax that’s in the theatrical release and a slightly different Coney Island flashback scene as a brief coda — yawn. What remains compelling though about the end of the film (*Spoilers Ahead*) is that it takes a Giant Monster attack to get Rob to admit to his friend Beth that he loves her. I think that character beat will sadly be overlooked by the very same dweebs who are watching the final shot is slow-mo to see if it’s really the Cloverfield monster that splashes down in the ocean — way, way in the background. But it’s that one little moment that lends a deeper sense of tragedy and resonance to a movie about a ginormous toothy frog that lays waste to Manhattan (*End Spoilers*).

-Brad Lohan

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