Directed by:
Dan TrachtenbergCinematography:
Jeff CutterComposer:
Bear McCrearyCast:
John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr., Douglas M. Griffin, Suzanne Cryer, Bradley Cooper, Frank Mottek, Sumalee MontanoVOD (3)
Plots(1)
Following a car accident, Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) awakens in the basement fallout shelter of a conspiracy-crazed man (John Goodman) who claims to have saved her from the wreckage of the crash. He also informs her that a chemical attack has devastated the surrounding area, rendering the outside world uninhabitable. Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.), who barely made it into the shelter, corroborates this version of events, but Michelle remains suspicious. As the dynamics within the bunker continually shift, she begins to doubt the truth of both what's happening in the shelter and in the outside world. (Paramount Pictures)
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Reviews (17)
The strongest aspects of the film are the story, the suspense and the feeling of uncertainty, where you have no idea whether John Goodman is a kidnapper or not and whether there is indeed a contaminated uninhabitable land outside or not until the final scene. This factor builds up the atmosphere and suspense and there are some good ideas, all underlined by solid performances. I had fun. 75%.
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When looking back, the film doesn't seem as clever as it did while I was watching it. Its screenplay tempts us to expect some kind of mystifying twist, similar to Sexmission, and meanwhile... The film is interesting in that, during its runtime, it changes genres, similar to a chameleon changing colors. It's not about intertwining different genre elements, it simply functions as a pure horror for a while, then transforms into a psychological drama of an isolated group of people, later on it becomes an authentic science fiction, and elsewhere it turns into a thriller about encountering a deranged criminal. By the way, the main heroine is really unlucky. Ending up in the company of the biggest lunatic in the district after a serious car accident is not fair at all. All three actors deliver an appropriate performance. Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the role of a brave girl who doesn't want to sell her life for free is likable and appeals to me more than in a similarly constructed character in the prequel The Thing. The real treat, however, is the presence of John Goodman in the role of an eccentric property owner with peculiar hobbies. This is an immensely gratifying type of character and John Goodman thoroughly enjoys it. Although after the final quarter-hour, when 10 Cloverfield Lane definitively reveals its true colors and the illusion of sophistication dissolves, the impression slightly decreases, I will ultimately give it 4 stars, as no matter what genre it belongs to, it precisely provides the emotions it intends to. Overall impression: 75%.
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A very current elaboration of a classic disaster theme, which in many respects continues freely in the footsteps of Spielberg's War of the Worlds. Goodman's character is not overshot in any way, and comes off to me exactly like an obese man in survival documentaries - a perverse mixture of rationality, vigilance and paranoia, with a hint something devious. It was a good decision to use highly subjective detail, low depth of field and sharpened sound. Sometimes it suffocates and cramps very pleasantly, sometimes it planes a thick string too ostentatiously and bets on "approximately motivated" twists as well as instructively reaped motifs. But as a whole, it doesn't embarrass the Cloverfield concept; on the contrary, despite all the modeling, the result is a thrilling and quite stimulating affair about the monster inside and out. And a celebration of human ingenuity. Take Shelter meets McGyver meets Im Keller. Good job. [75%]
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The name really screwed it. Throughout the film, the experience from an excellent chamber thriller drama is disrupted by the world “Cloverfield”; you know what kind of reveal this will eventually lead to. And when it gets there, what follows is disappointment, because the connection with the original film is really only on paper. If the film was called Independence Day 2, it would’ve been the same, if not better. A weak four.
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It's a good movie, but I won't pretend I didn't expect more. In the most tense moments, debutant Dan Trachtenberg can't be as gritty and intense as he should, and in the middle section he fails to pinch the atmosphere the way, say, John Carpenter did in The Thing. There are occasional dead moments, and by the fifth time you're figuring out what's out there, or which of the characters is a nutcase, it starts to get tedious. Never, thankfully, so that boredom sets in, and thanks to John Goodman's impecable performance and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who can do confident damsels in distress like few others, it's still a fun ride where you'll enjoy the twists and surprises. I just think it should have been made by someone who's done some movies before and knows that maintaining a suspenseful atmosphere when there are three people and four rooms on the screen doesn't quite work on its own and needs a little help.
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