10 Cloverfield Lane is a science fiction thriller from producer J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and was directed by Dan Trachtenberg who is making his feature film debut. The movie features acting performances by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, and John Gallagher Jr.
The Story:
Michelle (Winstead) is the survivor of a car accident. Howard (Goodman) is a man with a survival bunker. Emmett (Gallagher Jr.) is a man who has found himself inside the bunker with Michelle and Howard under very unusual circumstances.
Way back in 2008, producer J.J. Abrams, writer Drew Goddard, and director Matt Reeves shocked everyone with a viral campaign that led to a near frenzy of anticipation for a movie no one knew anything about. The end result became Cloverfield, a movie that took the monster movie genre and showed it from a completely different perspective. For me, this was a smashing success and I really wanted to see more from this crazy world that had been created. For years following the film's release there was barely a whisper of discussion or development on a sequel or follow up until, one day, a trailer popped up again out of nowhere for a brand new movie called 10 Cloverfield Lane.
While my hopes for a direct sequel to the monster mayhem of Cloverfield, I quickly learned, thanks to the new trailer, that "monsters come in many forms" and this new film would be it's own story yet still within the same family as the first, according to Abrams. After seeing the film, I have a much better idea of what he meant by that although I'm not going to explain what that means. As a matter of fact, you may have noticed that I'm not really telling you anything about the story of the film in this review which is very intentional.
Let's talk about the cast for a moment. John Goodman is absolutely fantastic in this movie and I will say right now that he has never been better in any film he has ever had a role in. The subtleties he puts into his character are one of the keys to keeping you, as a viewer off balance and never quite sure of what's going to happen next. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Gallagher Jr. are also very good in their roles as each add interesting pieces to the proverbial puzzle of a picture that slowly develops through the films one hour and 43 minute run time.
The Verdict:
10 Cloverfield Lane is a fantastic movie and a wonderful surprise from the team at Bad Robot. Just like it's predecessor, it mixes up classic genres (horror, thriller, science fiction) and shows them off in a completely new way. The less you know about the story going in, the more you will enjoy watching the film so get out there and check it out before word gets out and secrets are revealed!
John Goodman knocked it out the park!
ReplyDeleteI knew nothing about the story going in... good ending.
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