{"id":6201,"date":"2017-05-11T16:31:35","date_gmt":"2017-05-11T20:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=6201"},"modified":"2024-12-24T11:30:10","modified_gmt":"2024-12-24T16:30:10","slug":"10-cloverfield-lane-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=6201","title":{"rendered":"10 Cloverfield Lane-2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

10 Cloverfield Lane-2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Dan Trachtenberg<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead,\u00a0 John Goodman<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #643<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed May 11, 2017<\/p>\n

Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n

10 Cloverfield Lane is a 2016 psychological thriller billed as somewhat of a successor to the 2008 hit Cloverfield, though I fail to see the apparent correlation between the films.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the two stories seemingly have little or nothing to do with one another.<\/p>\n

Despite these pesky details, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a perfect, edge-of-your-seat type film that is unpredictable and thought-provoking.<\/p>\n

By the time the credits roll, it is a film worthy of discussion\u2014an excellent quality for a movie.<\/p>\n

Without any dialogue during the opening sequence (a clever move), we meet Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a twenty-something woman presumably on the outs with her boyfriend, who we never see.<\/p>\n

Alone, she flees their residence and drives into the night to parts unknown. The couple is metropolitan, living in central New Orleans.<\/p>\n

Now in the middle of Louisiana, and hearing radio reports of strange blackouts, Michelle is soon involved in a terrible car accident. When she awakens, she finds herself chained to a bed inside a small bunker inhabited by two men, Howard (John Goodman) and Emmitt (John Gallagher, Jr.).<\/p>\n

They insist that the outside world is no longer and all human beings are dead as a result of a catastrophic attack. Initially skeptical, Michelle slowly uncovers various clues that baffle her about the truth.<\/p>\n

10 Cloverfield Lane may very well be John Goodman’s best film performance.<\/p>\n

He plays Howard with gusto and mystery, and the audience is primarily baffled about whether to trust this man. Is he a vicious abductor, creating a make-believe world to keep Michelle hostage-or is he telling the truth?<\/p>\n

He plays the character as creepy and surly but with a tinge of vulnerability and sadness.<\/p>\n

I certainly was both fascinated and confused by Howard and could not determine his true motivations.<\/p>\n

Winstead also deserves credit for portraying a strong yet sympathetic female character who is never reduced to playing a victim, a testament to the actress’s ability.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Winstead has appeared in several duds (Black Christmas, 2006, and The Thing, 2011), so seeing her in a film worthy of her talents is nice.<\/p>\n

Michelle is intelligent and determined to deduce her surroundings and formulate a clever escape plan. However, in a nice twist, the filmmakers ask whether she wants to leave the safety of her bunker after all.<\/p>\n

Producer J.J. Abrams weaves a story with twists and turns, keeping the tension and interest high throughout the film. The primary question that reoccurs is, “What on earth lies outside of the bunker?”<\/p>\n

I enjoy that this film is not the typical, cookie-cutter fare in which we root for the female victim to escape the clutches of a male maniac\u2014it is much deeper and more complex than that.<\/p>\n

Most enjoyable is how events slowly unfold, and we, the audience, begin to question thoughts we have harbored throughout the run of the film.<\/p>\n

A perfect example of this comes in the final chapter, when events take off in an entirely different direction than the rest of the film. I felt a bit suffocated inside the bunker. What a relief to finally have some action occur outside of this location and into the fresh air.<\/p>\n

But what lurks in this new setting?<\/p>\n

One slight oddity is that the film includes Bradley Cooper’s voice as Michelle’s boyfriend, Ben, who is heard only by telephone. I did not notice this until the credits rolled, and it seemed like a silly and unnecessary inclusion.<\/p>\n

Also, we never know the turmoil between Michelle and Ben. Is their domestic trouble simply plot-driven antics, or does it have a deeper meaning?<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) is a film best watched when one does not know the first thing about the plot or circumstances surrounding events.<\/p>\n

The film was enjoyable because I did not know the twist, the conclusion, or even who starred in it. This kept all of the elements of surprise from me, making it more enjoyable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10 Cloverfield Lane-2016 Director Dan Trachtenberg Starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead,\u00a0 John Goodman Scott’s Review #643 Reviewed May 11, 2017 Grade: B+ 10 Cloverfield Lane is a 2016 psychological thriller billed as somewhat of a successor to the 2008 hit Cloverfield, though I fail to see the apparent correlation between the films. Furthermore, the two stories … Continue reading 10 Cloverfield Lane-2016<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[280,2303,6071,13,6072,1287,2554,103],"tags":[281,2307,4821,6073,248,6074,1289,2556,105],"class_list":["post-6201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-movie-reviews","category-bradley-cooper","category-dan-trachtenberg","category-horror-films","category-john-gallagher-jr","category-john-goodman","category-mary-elizabeth-winstead","category-scifi","tag-2016-movie-reviews","tag-bradley-cooper","tag-damien-chazelle","tag-dan-trachtenberg","tag-horror-films","tag-john-gallagher-jr","tag-john-goodman","tag-mary-elizabeth-winstead","tag-sci-fi-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6201"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20865,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6201\/revisions\/20865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}