Stupendous 8

                      

I'm just going to say it, Super 8 may be the best movie I've seen this year. For the teenager who still very much lives inside of me, there's no question about it. 

It's 1979 and a group of small town friends are obsessed with making a Super 8 horror movie. Sneaking around filming, they stumble across a horrific train crash - capturing more on film than they bargained for. A collaboration  between J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg, Super 8 is remarkably evocative of guru Spielberg's classics, from Jaws to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Yet it's no fawning "I love you, Steve," copycat on Abrams' part. It genuinely feels like these two kindred-spirit filmmakers have been inspired by each other. Abrams directs with tremendous heart and suspense here. The young cast of teenage filmmakers are fantastic, with Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning delivering standout performances.

As someone who spent a lot of time as part of a very similar group of dedicated teen filmmakers, I can tell you that Super 8 does a sensational job of capturing the obsessive energy and collective insanity of kids determined to follow in the footsteps of their heroes. "Production value!" The gang in Super 8 are nicely drawn characters and Courtney and his Orson Welles pal Riley Griffiths create a genuine sense of friendship and history together. Elle Fanning's arrival in their world causes just as much upheaval as the train crash they all witness. This is probably the best depiction of the seventies since Zodiac, everything feels very natural, nothing forced.

Super 8 is a monster movie, but it's also something more. More than anything, it's about the dreams that go on behind the camera - Abrams' and Spielberg's, as well as those of Courtney, Griffiths and his friends. They're all trying to capture something magic and they're all trying to live up to their inspirations. From where I'm sitting, the dreamers behind both cameras have succeeded spectacularly. Super 8 will carry you back to those halcyon summers that made us who we were, just like it was yesterday.