"10 Cloverfield Lane" Review

10 Cloverfield Lane is a sci-fi mystery thriller film directed by Dan Trachtenberg (a former fellow Temple University film student, and his feature directorial debut) and starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, and John Gallagher, Jr. It was originally titled The Cellar, but during production was put under the Cloverfield moniker and edited to make itself a spin-off/spiritual successor of sorts to 2008's Cloverfield when it was picked up by J.J. Abrams's Bad Robot production company. Like the first Cloverfield, this movie was essentially made in secret, in that no one knew it existed until about a month ago. There's also been basically zero marketing for this movie, with only one trailer that I can remember that still kept everything pretty tightly under wraps. Now, if you're a big fan of the first Cloverfield and are getting ready to see more alien destruction and shaky-cam monster action, then I'm sad to report that, for the most part, you're probably going to be super disappointed with 10 Cloverfield Lane. I honestly don't know whether or not putting it under the Cloverfield label was completely warranted, but it does very loosely tie in to the franchise universe, and if Abrams and company are going the route I'm thinking they're going with the franchise from here, I'm interested in the idea, as it's pretty unorthodox. However, if you're like me and are pretty indifferent to the first Cloverfield and like new things and risk-taking, then you'll probably really enjoy 10 Cloverfield Lane, so long as you keep in mind that this is a thriller with some sci-fi elements and not some big action monster movie.

Winstead plays a young woman who, after breaking up with her boyfriend, gets into a car accident and wakes up in the doomsday bunker of a paranoid, mysterious man named Howard, played by John Goodman. John Gallagher, Jr. plays a fellow survivor in the shelter. Howard informs Winstead's Michelle that the three of them are the lone survivors of a huge, catastrophic attack of unknown nature or origin, and that the air above is toxic to breathe. Various mysterious events ensue that make Winstead and Gallagher question the legitimacy of Goodman's claims, and what unfolds is a tense, tightly wound thriller with an intriguing sci-fi twist.

Once again, if you're like me and generally prefer small-scale, well-told thrillers instead of big, broad, scary monster movies, then 10 Cloverfield Lane is a near-perfect experience at the movies. This is a brilliant debut for Trachtenberg, and I'm excited to see what else he produces as an up and coming director. Both on the levels of writing and actual film structure, this is a consistently well executed and affecting mystery thriller. Trachtenberg lets the mystery unfold languidly with dynamic camerawork and tight editing, as well as a really surprisingly engrossing score that I was surprised to find wasn't written by a veteran composer. The movie is claustrophobic and slow-burning, and the tension is palpable.

That, and the script is smart. There are so many subtle set-ups and pay-offs that work really nicely throughout the movie concerning characters' interests, former occupations, etc. They work logically in the series of events, and the entire plot feels concise, smart, and well constructed... until the end, which I'll address in a moment. The characters are also well-written. Gallagher's character unfortunately sort of falls by the wayside despite some respectable backstory to the much more fleshed out characters played by Winstead and Goodman.

And, oh man, the performances in this movie are sublime. Winstead is aggressively likable in the lead, and plays an actually smart, competent, and clever character with some actual dimension, and an arc that actually pays off really well. Goodman definitely steals the show, though. No joke - John Goodman should get talk for an Oscar nomination for this movie (which would be looooong overdue). So often do tinfoil hat-wearing, doomsday bunker-building, paranoid, government skeptic characters in movies turn into caricatures, and this kind of character that constantly teeters between cuddly, inviting teddy bear and terrifying monster could have easily become a cartoon character. But the screenplay is written smartly enough and Goodman is a gifted enough character actor that he manages to perfectly balance his character's mix of "damaged and troubled" and "legitimately scared". Goodman also does a great job playing a villain that isn't aware that he's a villain, and actually thinks he's helping the other characters even when doing some pretty dire things - and not for any vague sociopathic reason; he legitimately cares for them and believes his own position so much that he is convinced he knows what he's doing. Seriously, Goodman's character and performance are the best thing about this movie. If you need a reason to see it, it's John Goodman.

And now for inarguably the worst part of the movie - the ending, which I won't spoil for you. There were about four times in the space of the last ten minutes that I thought the movie was ending, some of them feeling better than others. Overall, the time at which it did end did tie up a story arc nicely as well as further establish the film's dubious position in the Cloverfield franchise, but I wish the film had continued its subdued brilliance that it demonstrates through literally 95% of its runtime, until the very end. I'm able to look past it because it's just intriguing enough to still give me reason to legitimize it, but I think I would've preferred it to end differently. I'll have to see it a second time though.

Overall, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a brilliant sci-fi mystery whatsit that slightly falters at its attempt to make itself canon(?) with the first Cloverfield film, but as a slow-burning thriller, it is pretty fucking flawless. Winstead is great, John Goodman's performance is absolutely phenomenal, the script is well-written and clever, the characters are interesting, and the tension is built up slowly and beautifully. It's an amiable directorial debut for Dan Trachtenberg, and a twisty, expectation-bending sci-fi mystery that is definitely worth checking out.

Grade: A-