Review of 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) by Allan C — 14 Oct 2017

A crackerjack of a film that keeps the audience guessing from beginning to end. Co-written by Damien Chazelle, who wrote and directed La La Land, and produced by J.J. Abrams, who produced the other "Cloverfield" movie about a giant Godzilla-like creature attacking NYC.

"10 Cloverfield Lane" is a very different kind of story about Mary Elizabeth Winstead knocked unconscious in a car wreck only to find herself locked in an underground shelter by John Goodman, who tells her there has been some kind of incident or outbreak out in the world and that they must remain in the bunker to stay safe.

Is she a prisoner? Is Goodman her savior or completely insane? Does she risk trying to escape, angering Goodman or facing the unknown outside? John Gallagher Jr. plays a third character also confined to the bunker, similarly brought there by Goodman and unsure if he's been saved or is a prisoner.

These types of bottle-stories, with a group of characters confined to a small space, whether it's high art with "Death and the Maiden" or whether it's exciting pulp as with something like "The Thing," are incredibly fun when they are done well and this one is done amazingly well.

Winstead is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses after this and following a great performance in season three of "Fargo" (along with discovering her singing career with Dan the Automator in "Got a Girl").

Goodman is terrific in his ambivalent performance where you cannot figure out if he's a devil or an angel. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who seems to have not made anything else of note before of after this, tightly directs the film, building incredible suspense at times, while also giving time for the characters to become fully fleshed out.

SPOILER ALERT! I felt the film did go a bit off the rails at the end when Winstead does finally escape and she has to fight off giant space monsters. Don't get me wrong, it's all very fun, but it felt like I'd suddenly stepped into another film.

It may conceptually be an interesting ending in that it ties this to a larger J.J. Abrams Cloverfield universe, but this film taken on it's own, it felt strange and unnecessary, especially considering how small and confined a majority of the film was to then suddenly get dropped into the middle of a giant Michael Bay Transformers movie (though maybe that was the intent).

Still, "Cloverfield 10 Lane" is an exciting, suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat kind of film that is a must see for fans of this sort of film. If you enjoy this type of set up, I'd recommend Xavier Gens' horror/thriller "The Divide" about a group of survivors in a fallout shelter after a nuclear attack, although I have to warn you it's a pretty rough ride.