They don’t make films like they used to — except when they make films like they used to. From the title on down, the new Steven Spielberg-produced, J.J. Abrams-written/directed sci-fi smash Super 8 is a fun-filled, reverential nod to the outlandish summer films of yore.
Released 29 years, almost to the day, after Spielberg’s boy-meets-alien classic E.T., this action-packed update revisits familiar themes — namely childhood as something parents just don’t understand, and the U.S. government as the bad guys.
It revisits the entire era. Set in Ohio in 1979, the film has a blast delving into the music and styles of the time. And Abrams (Lost, Alias, Star Trek) is in familiar territory positing a group of individuals (in this case, kids) against a world they don’t understand.
It begins with bad news. Young Joe Lamb’s mother has died in an accident at the factory where she worked, leaving his deputy sheriff dad Jackson (Kyle Chandler) to care for him.
Super 8, you may recall (or have to ask your parents), is the name of the video-predating film stock used by families to record their most cherished moments through the ’60s and ’70s. Joe goes through the film trying to reconcile his grief at the loss of his mom.
His escape is the movies. He and his group of awesomely nerdy pals— led by pudgy, loud-mouthed director Cary (Ryan Lee) are making a super 8 zombie flick. Their hilarious, talk-over-each-other dialogue provides many of the film’s highlights, and incentive to see it twice.
The boys score big time by convincing cute classmate Alice Dainard (the eerie and incandescent Elle Fanning) to play a role in their film. On a midnight shoot at the town train station, they witness a terrible train wreck (cue wildly over-the-top crash scene, complete with flying cars, explosions and ear-splitting sound effects).
It turns out one of their teachers was involved. Near death, he warns them to run, and to never speak of what happened. As the U.S. army rolls in, they squeal away in Alice’s dad’s hotrod.
The next morning, the army has the site on lockdown, and isn’t revealing anything about the spilled (and escaped) contents of the train’s cargo, much to the suspicion of Joe’s father.
The rest of the movie is spent developing the parallel storylines of the ongoing film shoot; increasingly strange and scary occurrences in the town; the children’s and deputy sheriff Lamb’s separate quests to find out what’s really going on; and Joe’s flowering romance with Alice.
If E.T. had tender moments between boy and alien, Super 8 relies on plain old boy-girl dynamics as its emotional anchor. Both Joe and Alice come from broken homes, with absent mothers. Their connection is tangible, and touching.
“Bad things happen, but you can still live,” Joe says, in the movie’s climax, summing up the moral of the story.
But while the narrative arc is well drawn and neatly wrapped up, the film’s real thrust is in the interplay of the kids at its core. Everything else — alien, army, parents — is secondary. By staying focused, Abrams gives his highly entertaining blockbuster depth, and succeeds in recapturing the spirit of a time gone by even as he makes a hit for here and now.
Review
Super 8. Starring Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler, Riley Griffiths, Ryan Lee, Zach Mills and Gabriel Basso. Directed by J.J. Abrams. Rating: Four stars out of five
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