James A. Molnar of the Toledo Free Press rated Super 8 as one of the Top 3 Movies of 2011 because it "hit home."

The hand of death has touched my life. And the reminders are haunting.

There is a scene in “Super 8” where Joel’s Courtney’s character Joe Lamb is watching old movies featuring him and his mom together.

“It’s so weird watching her like this, like she’s still here,” he says about his mom to Alice Dainard, played by Elle Fanning. “She used to look at me this way, like really look. And I just knew I was there. That I existed.”