REVIEW: 10 Cloverfield Lane

For those movie freaks who are hoping for a direct sequel to 2008's Cloverfield, you could be disappointed.  Producer J.J. Abrams has long stated a lack of ambition for creating sequels, but it does not take long in watching 10 Cloverfield Lane to understand why it is that he has returned to this universe.  Instead of working immediately off of the events of the first film, this movie is less of a sibling and more of a doppelgänger.  Well, that may be a little misleading in of itself.  The point is that it is not related, but there are similarities.

The film takes place in an underground shelter that has been created by Howard (John Goodman), who has taken in Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Emmett (John Gallagher, Jr.) as the world seems to have come to a brutal end.  There is not a great deal that is explained about Howard, and it is clear right from the start that we should not have the most trust for the man.

The weight of the unease is put on the shoulders of Goodman, who sadly has never been nominated for an Oscar.  You may think that I am silly for putting John Goodman and Oscar in the same sentence, but look far past his films like King Ralph and The Flintstones.   His career in film is full of supporting roles that have been more than worthy of the nod, and this movie is the perfect showcase of that talent.  He brings the tension brilliantly in a way that keeps the audience from never feeling completely settled, expecting that anything could happen at any point in time.

This suspense is played on well through the directing of Dan Trachtenberg.  This is his directorial debut with feature films, but he handles himself well.  There is a real trick to this movie, and that is to make a reveal of aliens far from silly.  It's not a spoiler that there are aliens in the film, it has Cloverfield in the title.  It would be a spoiler if I said there were no aliens in the movie.  It would also be a lie.  It is a tricky thing to transition from the grounded portions of the script to the extra terrestrial, but it is managed well, and the viewer should not be knocked from the flow of the film.

Ultimately it is a movie that focuses on isolation and claustrophobia, unanswered questions and not knowing who to trust.  In a way the feelings that resonated with me were similar to John Carpenter's The Thing, in that there was very little throughout the film that I felt I could believe.  This was what made the experience of 10 Cloverfield Lane a thrilling and entertaining journey, finding out the dangers in the dark at the same time as the main character and bewaring the motivations of Howard at all times.

Rating - 3.5 out of 4 stars