10 Cloverfield Lane - Film Review

After the enjoyable Cloverfield (which I reviewed here), I was excited to see what else that this franchise had to offer. It made natural sense to immediately progress to this one next as I've heard it's genuinely a good film all on its own. I never pondered on how the experience of sharing a doomsday bunker with John Goodman might go, but now I know. 

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Where You Can Find It: I saw this one on Amazon Video where it is available for rent/purchase.

General Information 
10 Cloverfield Lane is a horror thriller film that originally released on 11 March 2016. It is Dan Trachtenberg's directorial debut with Josh Campbell and Matt Stueken writing (with some slight assistance from Damien Chazelle). J.J. Abrams co-produced with Bad Robot Productions, while Paramount Pictures distributed. It is marginally tied to the 2008 Cloverfield, however the viewer does not need to see that film to watch this one. Similarly to its predecessor, it won a few awards with three of them at the Saturn Award for the following: Best Thriller Film; Best Actress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead); and Best Actor (John Goodman). Critically, it has a Metascore of 76 on Metacritic and a 90% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Although it didn't out-earn Cloverfield's $172.4 million haul, it still raked in over $110.2 million at the box office. The film would be followed by The Cloverfield Paradox in 2018, which is another pseudo-sequel.

The Story

Michelle (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is starting a new chapter in her life as she leaves her fiancé in New Orleans when she suffers a terrible car accident that leaves her unconscious. When she wakes up, she discovers she's locked inside a doomsday bunker with a volatile conspiracy-theorist, Howard Stambler (John Goodman), and the well-meaning Emmett DeWitt (John Gallagher Jr.). Michelle is told that the U.S. was attacked by an unknown enemy and that the surface is now poisonous, while all of her family and loved ones are likely dead. The attack-story doesn't quite add up though, and Michelle soon discovers that there are just as many secrets left outside as there are inside.

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It's not all doom and gloom though. This movie has board games too!

The thing that I love about this film's story is that it constantly plays with the viewer's expectations of what is actually going on throughout the story. Like Michelle, I quickly found myself doubting Howard's story about the end of the world, but it was also clear that Howard wasn't completely lying or insane. Because of his sheer unpredictability, much of this story benefits whenever Howard is in the frame as the viewer can never really know what he's going to do.

As awesome as Howard is, not even his doomsday bunker could save us from the final ten minutes of this film. The story takes a wild turn near the end that feels completely inorganic and forced, which honestly spoils a lot of the goodwill the rest of the movie earns. It makes me wonder who wrote the last part, as it felt like I was watching a completely different (and much worse) movie.

Special Effects/Atmosphere

As soon as the film started, Bear McCreary's chilling score told me that I was in for something special. The audio and background music is exceptionally well done, however I might say that some of the licensed music is a bit on-the-nose. The set design of Howard's bunker is also nicely done as I was reminded of a certain other bunker J.J. Abrams was involved with producing some time ago. An aspect I can really appreciate is that this film takes the time to quickly establish where everything is in Howard's bunker. This really helped with the story's overall tension as I could actually discern where characters were in proximity to one another during particularly nerve-wracking scenes.

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McCreary's opening score is spine-tingling!

Generally speaking, the special effects are fairly serviceable. Without spoiling anything, there was some pretty bland use of CGI near the end that I wasn't particularly fond of. Like the story, visual effects and atmosphere gets pretty bad whenever the plot goes outside the bunker. I will say that I was a fan of the makeup effects throughout though.

The Acting

I've seen John Goodman in a fair bit of film and television, but this is arguably his best role. I've always viewed Goodman as the kind-hearted dad from Roseanne, however he brings such an incredible level of creepiness and intimidation that I found myself constantly glued to his actions. The fact that Winstead and Gallagher are both in far better shape and age than Goodman's Howard would seemingly make Howard less of a threat, but Goodman's performance defies that logic as he's consistently threatening even when he doesn't mean to be. In a film where the cast is incredibly limited, Goodman keeps things interesting, and I would argue that he is easily the best part of this film.

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Goodman gives one of his best roles to date.

Although Goodman's performance eclipses Winstead's and Gallagher's, they both still do a great job. Winstead's Michelle comes off as both vulnerable and exceptionally rational, which essentially puts her at polar opposites from Goodman's Howard. The level of fear and uncertainty that plays across her face throughout much of the film comes off as genuine. Gallagher is possibly the least remarkable, but he's hardly bad. DeWitt embraces the cards life has dealt him and Gallagher has to play a fine line of not coming off as too complacent, while also sharing in some of the dread that permeates Howard's bunker. 

The Best of the Best: Howard Stambler's menacing presence that keeps the audience guessing until the very end.

The Worst of the Worst: The unnecessarily over-the-top final ten minutes.

Calhooey Score: 7/10 - Good

Would I Recommend?

I had hear 10 Cloverfield Lane was the best of the Cloverfield trilogy, and thus far I would tend to agree with such statements. John Goodman delivers a fantastic performance with Winstead and Gallagher backing him up nicely. I think people who like psychological thrillers will really appreciate this film, but those that absolutely adored the original Cloverfield may be left wanting a little. 

-------------------------------------------------Spoiler Comments-----------------------------------------------------

• I'm curious what caused Michelle to flee her fiancé. I don't believe we ever get a concrete answer.
• I'd love to know what part of Louisiana Howard was able to build an underground bunker in. I feel like flooding and insects would be a constant problem.
• Did DeWitt honestly think his confession to plotting against Howard would go over well? I feel like I could've made up any number of stories beyond the one he gave that would've resulted in my survival.
• I don't know how I feel about the fact that Howard was genuinely mad the entire time. He was scary even if he wasn't a child-killer, and I feel like this revelation sort of ruined the mystery behind him.
• It's a good thing that the other-worldly smog Michelle was doused in was no match against her homemade shower curtain outfit. 
• I'm sure Michelle will be a major boon to the resistance with her beaten-up body, no supplies, and PTSD.
• I know I've said this before, but I want to reiterate how much I hate this ending. I think it would've been fantastic if Michelle escaped the bunker only to find herself in the shadow of the original Cloverfield monster with the movie cutting to black as she realizes how truly screwed she is.

----------------------------------------------------References--------------------------------------------------

*Wikipedia. (n.d.). 10 Cloverfield Lane film image. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_Cloverfield_Lane#Reception.

**Tallerico, B. (2016, March 11). Board game image. Roger Ebert. Retrieved from: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/10-cloverfield-lane-2016.

***Soundtracked Universe. (2016, March 3). Michelle - 10 Cloverfield Lane Soundtrack video. YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdRVkj5EIjU.

****Tapley, K. (2016, March 10). Goodman and barrel image. Variety. Retrieved from: https://variety.com/2016/film/awards/10-cloverfield-lane-john-goodman-oscar-worty-1201726923/.