Per IMDB – During the summer of 1979, a group of friends witness a train crash and investigate subsequent unexplained events in their small town.
I saw this film on the Upper East Side, just near Shake Shack, when I was in New York in June. It was a pretty fucking awesome day. After speaking to some friends about Super 8 and hearing their general ho hum reaction to it, I initially thought that my enjoyment of the film was due to the events surrounding my viewing of it, and that if I’d seen it back home that I might have been underwhelmed by it too. That’s not the case. I’ve watched Super 8 a couple more times since I first saw it, and it has left me impressed after every viewing.
J.J. Abrams has delivered the best Spielberg film in a long long time. It’s like watching a ’70s/’80s bunch of kid friends film, à la Stand By Me or The Goonies. That’s never a bad thing. I really enjoyed the sense of wonder that fills the film, the adventure the kids go on, and the depiction of budding first love between Joe (Joel Courtney) and Alice (Elle Fanning).
Like all films which feature children in prominent roles, they live or die by the performances, and I have to say that each and every one of the kids in Super 8 does a good job. That’s another reason why the film reminds of stuff like E.T., Stand By Me, and The Goonies. All those films, and probably more that I’m forgetting, featured children in all the major roles, and all of these films were good not only because of the story being told, but because of the great performances by the children. It’s easy to spot poor acting by children, it’s always stilted and fake, and it constantly takes you out of the film. There’s a reason the first bunch of Harry Potter films aren’t as good as the later ones, and it’s not just the ever increasing dark storylines. It’s also a prominent reason why The Phantom Menace sucks, and why I can’t even handle 10 minutes of Mary Poppins any more. Kid actors either elevate or ruin films, and the kids in Super 8 elevate it to something wonderful.
There’s an undeniable nostalgic feel to the film but, for me at least, it doesn’t come across as manufactured or manipulative, it simply makes me feel like a kid again.
