Super 8 (2011)
Directed by: J. J. Abrams
I know he’s only the producer, but Super 8 finds us in classic Spielberg territory: 1970s small-town America. In an efficient scene-setting, we learn that Joe (Joel Courtney) has just lost his mom to an industrial accident, and his deputy-sheriff dad (Kyle Chandler) blames no-goodnik Louis Dainard (Ron Eldard). Four months later, Joe is one of five kids making a zombie movie using the eponymous home movie kit. Trouble is, one of the other kids is Alice (Elle Fanning), daughter of Louis. Each of the dysfunctional dads (the one a self-hating drunk, the other a cold, angry shell, unable to hug his son) is opposed to the two kids being near each other – but when a mysterious train crashes outside the town, their irritation gets swamped by some bad-ass alien trouble. Read more
