10 Cloverfield Lane - B-

​Quick Hit: A good atmospheric film that loses a lot of what it has built in the final minutes.

​10 Cloverfield Lane is not a true sequel. In fact, there is almost nothing to link it to the previous movie besides the name. J.J. Abrams has described it as a “spiritual sequel”, and after watching it, I understand what he is saying. There is a similar theme of discomfort throughout, and several strong acting performances that make you care about the characters (probably more than you should).

The movie follows Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as she is in a car crash. She wakes up in a bunker attached to an IV with a splint on her leg. She quickly tries to escape, before her captor, Howard (John Goodman), explains that something has happened outside, and she isn’t allowed to leave.

Now, Michelle does what anyone would do… She tries to escape this crazy dude anyway. Eventually though, Howard gains some of her trust when he shows her what the air outside has done to the pigs on his farm. There is also another man down in the bunker with them, Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.). Emmett was hired by Howard to assist in the construction of the bunker, and when he saw explosions happening, he knew right where to go.

John Goodman shows why he is still one of the best actors around. He has such a bipolar mood in this film, between a soft-spoken man who is obviously misunderstood by everyone in his life, and a man who is so, so angry about being misunderstood. John Goodman’s bellows have rarely been used to ​ffect than they are in this film. His performance is what carries this film 

throughout. He has so much gravity and purpose on screen, and... his presence is amazing. 

There is so much tension and mystery generated that you aren’t sure what the truth is and what isn’t, and that’s why it works. It’s also remarkably unclear as to what his intentions with Michelle are. Is she a stand-in for his daughter? A stand-in for his wife?  Or just a pet that he enjoys having?

There are also some really surprising moments that I won’t ruin here. Like Cloverfield before it, this film isn’t concerned with keeping the audience happy. It’s more about keeping the audience on its toes. The final scene in the bunker is really where the movie should have ended, because after that… well…

**************************************************spoilers**************************************************

After that, it turns out that Howard and Emmett were right! There are aliens attacking. And apparently they are stupid aliens, because one woman completely outsmarts and destroys them. I HATED, HATED, HATED this part. It was so tonally different from the rest of the film that it just didn’t belong.  If the movie would have ended with her emerging from the bunker, I would have been pissed, but happy at what I had just watched. Instead, the movie ended with this battle, and I got bored really fast with the fifteen minute battle scene.

I did like that our “Final Girl” (because isn’t this a type of horror film?) choose to go fight more though. There’s not enough good strong women in film.
​

I’m going to give the movie a “B-”. It would have been an “A” had it not been for the ending.
 
For more on this film, check out IMDB.