10 Cloverfield Lane

Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, John Gallagher Jr.
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Runtime: 103 mins. Reviewed in Mar 2016

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Rating notes: Sustained threat, violence and coarse language

‘Cloverfield’, released in 2008, was a studio blockbuster with a mysterious and drawn out advertising campaign. Stylistically daring, it was shot as ‘found footage’, which produced interesting results occasionally limited by the filmmakers’ self-imposed stricture. ’10 Cloverfield Lane’ is touted as a ‘spiritual successor’ to the original, but does plenty to differ itself from what came eight years earlier. For starters, it was shot in secrecy despite the involvement of superstar producer JJ Abrams, and the first trailer for the movie was first aired less than two months before the film’s release. While anyone familiar with the first film will likely have a better chance at guessing the denouement, the lead up beforehand makes for an impressive and contained thriller.

In the opening scene, young woman Michelle throws some belongings in a bag and leaves her home, abandoning her engagement ring on a benchtop. She drives away, distressed and disregarding calls from her fiancé. Shockingly, her car is totalled in a sudden collision and she blacks out. From the beginning, the film gives us a fairly extreme version of an M rating, and sensitive viewers may spend some time watching through their fingers.

Michelle, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, awakes in an underground concrete cell, cuffed to some piping along the wall. She still exhibits signs of injuries from the accident, and her mobile is picking up zero reception. After a failed escape attempt, her captor Howard, inhabited by a hulking John Goodman, tells her that any escape would be futile, as North America above has been devastated by an attack from unknown enemies. She is understandably sceptical of his claims. The script, written by Josh Campbell, Matthew Stuecken and Damien Chazelle, is well paced and tightly wound, and encourages the audience to question every piece of information offered.

Michelle then discovers that she is not the only other resident in the bunker – simple but earnest farmhand Emmett is also there, and claims that he saw the attack and fought Howard to be allowed into the bunker. Our protagonist however, is still unconvinced. As they sit down for an incredibly tense dinner (a ‘dysfunctional family’ label doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of their dynamics), helped immeasurably by the taut editing of Stefan Grube and musical embellishments of Bear McCreary, she tries another breakout. This time though, she witnesses something outside which might just prove Howard and Emmett’s claims.

To go further into plot details would be a disservice to a film so built upon twists and turns. However, it would be equally unjust to say nothing of the dynamite cast. Winstead is terrific in the lead, able to convey her uncertainty and terror with small ticks, yet easily switching track to dominant when she grasps her own fate. John Gallagher Jr. plays Emmett so disarmingly open that you can’t help but like him, and his self-confessed dim-wittedness only makes him more appealing. John Goodman, however, chews up every scene he’s in, with such a physical and densely characterized performance that he can fulfil every possible role the audience can project on him – conspiracy nut, doomsayer, psychopath, grieving father… The list goes on.

Debut feature director Dan Trachtenberg was plucked after the success of an internet short he made a few years ago. He tackles the leap into quasi-blockbuster territory with aplomb, milking the smaller, earlier moments for maximum impact and doing a decent job with the third-act swerves into more genre set pieces. He’s a name to watch in the future. If he continues to operate on the fringes, and keeps pushing the boundaries of what Hollywood franchise fare can be, then his name just might become a portent of quality too.