Sunday, March 27, 2016

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) review


(Note: While the film has been out for at least two weeks now, I’m still going to maintain a ‘no spoilers’ mandate for this review in case some of you haven’t seen it yet.)

In 2007, J.J. Abrams, before he became known as the director who was responsible for reviving not one but three separate franchises (Mission Impossible, Star Trek, and Star Wars), debuted a secret trailer that ran before screenings of Michael Bay’s first Transformers film. This trailer, which centered around a going-away party in New York that was interrupted by a mysterious event occurring in the city, was noteworthy for not initially revealing the title for the film. It only listed J.J.’s producing credit and its impending release date of 1-18-08. It wasn’t until later when the film’s official title, Cloverfield, and the fact that it was a monster film was made clear. And when it was released that following January, it proved to be a pretty sizable hit, attracting solid reviews and a nice box-office haul on just a $25 million budget. The success of the film led to much talk about a possible sequel, with director Matt Reeves stating that there were many possibilities for follow-ups due to the fact that the events of the film probably weren’t the only ‘filmed’ events from that night. Ultimately though, for a few years it seemed like there wasn’t going to be a sequel due to both Reeves and Abrams moving onto other projects. However, just less than two months ago, Abrams pulled a fast one on us by unveiling a special teaser before, fittingly enough, another Michael Bay film; in this case, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. As it turned out, this ‘mystery film’ was pretty much the long-awaited Cloverfield sequel that fans have been waiting for; 10 Cloverfield Lane. However, as J.J. soon made it clear, this was only a ‘blood relative’ to that film and looking at it now, that’s definitely true. This is not meant to be a straightforward sequel to the original film. But even with that said, and save for some unanswered questions that come from the ending, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a very thrilling story that showcases the potential for where this series can go from here.

As the film begins, a young woman named Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) leaves her New Orleans home after getting into an argument with her fiancé Ben (who’s notably played, in voice only, by Bradley Cooper). But while driving through Louisiana, she suddenly ends up in a severe car accident. When she comes to, she finds herself chained to the wall in a small concrete room. She soon learns that she’s been brought to an underground bunker that is also being inhabited by Emmett Dewitt (John Gallagher, Jr.), a fellow ‘survivor’, and the owner of the bunker, Howard Stambler (John Goodman). Howard tells her that he brought her to the bunker following her crash because of an unspecified attack that has made the air outside toxic and has pretty much killed off everyone else save for them. With nowhere else to go, Michelle is forced to adapt to living within Howard’s bunker. But as time goes on, both Michelle and Emmett start to grow suspicious of Howard and fear that, despite his seemingly generous nature in regards to letting them stay in the bunker, he’s actually going to become a threat to them. As a result, the two begin working on an escape plan, which ultimately leads them to have to confront whatever the heck is going on up on the surface.

Back in January, I did a post on the trailer for this film and posed the question of just how much is it meant to connect to the original Cloverfield. Well, having now seen the film, I can firmly say that it actually doesn’t relate to it that much. In other words, this is not a ‘follow-up’ to the events of the first film. The monster from the first film does not appear at any point and this film is shot traditionally instead of in the ‘found-footage’ style that defined the first film. But at the same time, I do still see how this film is meant to be a ‘blood relative’ of Cloverfield. Both films are, at their very roots, stories of strange ‘events’ happening and how certain people respond to it. And whereas the first film was a ‘monster/horror’ film, this film is more of a claustrophobic thriller as it is almost entirely set within the confines of Howard’s bunker. And overall it does deliver on being a very tense thriller throughout, with the audience left in the dark just as much as Michelle is in regards to what’s going on. And because of it, you’re very much invested in wanting to know more just like Michelle. The film also benefits from a terrific trio of leads. John Gallagher, Jr., AKA the ‘general unknown’ of the three, is solid even when considering that his character Emmett is basically the least important of the three. Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Michelle is a smart and likable ‘avatar’ for the audience and it’s really cool how a good chunk of the film revolves around her and her attempts to escape, whether it’s using an IV rod in order to reach her phone or her starting a fire in the ventilation system. But the real star of the show is John Goodman in the role of Howard. Walking a fine line between intimidating and creepy, as well as seeming like he’s ‘not all there’ at times, Howard is a complete enigma throughout and this film reaffirms the fact that Goodman is quite simply one of the best character actors in the business.  

But while I was immediately hooked with the plot and was curious to see where this film was going to go, I’ll admit that I felt a little let-down by the ending. Now again, I won’t spoil what happens for anyone who hasn’t seen the film yet and for the record, it’s not like this ending was completely out of left field or anything, as I’ve heard some people claim. There are some allusions early on about what’s actually happening and of course whatever it is was responsible for what then led to Howard, Michelle, and Emmett being stuck in the bunker. And the conflict that emerges between Howard and Michelle is also clearly defined in regards to the former’s true intentions. However, in regards to “what’s coming”, as the marketing keeps stating, the film doesn’t really do much to explain it. Now I’m not entirely faulting the film for deciding not to delve too much into this ‘entity’ but at the same time, it would’ve been nice to learn just a little bit more about who this is and what they’re doing here. Also, there’s not much of a finality to Howard’s overall story arc. I’ve read about the film’s original ending and, obviously without giving anything major away, I do feel that this version would’ve resulted in a more conclusive ending to the conflict between Howard and Michelle. This ending also doesn’t feature the ‘entity’ so I’m guessing that part of the film was added in later, supposedly in reshoots. Either way, though, neither version really does much to explain what actually happened. At the end of the day, it’s more about what happens inside the bunker than what’s happening on the outside. 

Now despite my issues with the ending, I did still thoroughly enjoy 10 Cloverfield Lane. Because ultimately the most important element of the film isn’t ‘what’s out there’ but instead the characters within the bunker and everything that goes on while they’re in there. The first two-thirds of the film do an excellent job in regards to setting these characters up and establishing a terrifically suspenseful atmosphere within its ‘cozy’ confines, especially thanks to John Goodman’s outstanding performance as the incredibly eerie Howard. As someone who admittedly isn’t a ‘big, big fan’ of the original Cloverfield, I actually didn’t mind that this film wasn’t a 100% ‘direct sequel’ to it. There has been some debate over the overall decision to connect this film to the original Cloverfield, with some arguing that this was nothing more than Paramount cashing in on the Cloverfield name due to the fact that this film was originally known as The Cellar before Bad Robot took over the film’s production and connected it to the 2008 film. But overall I do very much get how this film can be seen as a ‘blood relative’ to the original Cloverfield because both films do share a similarly structured plot based around ‘strange occurrences’. This film also helps showcase the potential of what is apparently meant to be the beginning of a new ‘anthology’ series and a pretty interesting one at that, if you ask me. After all, as this film’s tagline states, ‘Monsters Come in Many Forms’, so it’ll be interesting to see what kind of ‘monsters’ J.J. Abrams and his team come up with down the road. Until then, I will say that 10 Cloverfield Lane is a well-made thriller with a great trio of leads and an interesting premise that keep me interested throughout even if it kind of unraveled by the end.


Rating: 4/5

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