Film/TV

Curtains Up on 10 Cloverfield Lane

A real surprise!

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I will admit I walked in ready to hate 10 Cloverfield Lane.  I have my reasons. Prior to the release the filmmakers have mentioned that this is a cousin of the 2008 found footage film Cloverfield.  Now that film, in my own snotty opinion, was a lesson is queasiness. Not because of tension, but because of use of the handheld camera that had me holding in my lunch.  So I walked in this new film and sat in the back so I didn’t get motion sickness.  But to my surprise, I didn’t get sick, the camera work was steady and nicely composed and 10 Cloverfield Lane is a really good thriller.

After surviving a car accident, a woman, Michelle, (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) wakes up in an underground cellar built by a paranoid survivalist Howard Stambler (an amazing John Goodman).  He tells her he saved her life and that a global chemical attack has left the planet uninhabitable. So she lives in this hospitable cellar with Howard and a young neighborhood handyman named Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.).  Being in such a small space would get on anyone’s nerves and soon, the nice guy Howard, starts to show cracks in his pleasant demeanor. Thinking that there is more to him and his story, Michelle makes a run for it and tries to escape.

Here is where the trailers and TV commercials seem to stop and for good reason.  This is a twisty kind of film that will either – at this point – have you in the palm of its hand or walking out the door. Myself, I thought it was a pretty good twist and thank you to the director, Dan Trachtenberg, for not spilling the beans. This is a well done thriller that should find its audience. It’s a smart and scary ride full of wonderful craft and great acting. John Goodman is the standout here. A true character actor that seems to always be on the sidelines. Here he is given much to do and pulls it off like the seasoned pro he is. Watching his Howard go from hero to crackpot is a lesson in screen acting that no one could teach but him.

 

 

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