Lazy Film Critic Movie Reviews
10 Cloverfield Lane
So it's been 8 years since the release of Cloverfield, and rumors of a sequel have been floating around the internet for the past couple of years, and now we kind of have that, sort of. This movie is the first feature length film by Dan Tratchenberg, and it stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, and John Gallagher Jr. The film follows a woman who finds herself in an underground fallout shelter stuck with two other people, during what appears to be an apocalyptic event of sorts.
I've always been a fan of movies with small casts, I don't know why specifically, I just enjoy that style of filmmaking. And the cast of this movie is fantastic, Mary Elizabeth Winstead delivers one of the best performances I've seen from her. My only fear is that her performance isn't gonna get the recognition it deserves, with John Goodman completely stealing the show. Goodmans performance is one of the best, creepiest, and most deeply unsettling portrayals of a psychopath since the Trinity killer from Dexter. He's never cheesy either, it's always in the subtle behaviours that makes his character the truly unnerving thing it is.
Despite this being Dan Tratchenbergs first feature film, it's not his first time directing. He made an awesome short film based on the Portal games a while back called Portal: No Escape. And in a lot of ways, this film shares a lot of qualities with that short, mainly claustrophobia. I'm not sure how he does it, but Tratchenberg is a master of making a situation feel claustrophobic and isolated on a level I haven't seen since I saw Alien. He's also great with suspense, this movie doesn't shy away from letting a scene be as long as it needs to be just to draw out the suspense further, and it more than pays off.
Now, this isn't really an issue with the film itself, but I can see other people taking issue with this. The only real way this movie connects to Cloverfield is the title, and a few hidden references. While I didn't have a problem with this, in fact I felt it was a perfect way to make a sequel to a film like Cloverfield, I can see someone taking issue with this movie. It's not a Cloverfield sequel, this movie is it's own thing, it just shares the title. Again, that's not really a problem, but I feel like people should know what to expect going into this.
Final Rating
10 Cloverfield Lane is a near perfect film, I loved every second of it. I loved the performances, particularly John Goodmans downright Buffalo Bill-ish performance. The direction is some of the most stellar suspenseful and anxiety-inducing direction I've seen since Sicario. I feel like this movie is going to divide a lot of people, mainly on the ending, but I'm one of the people who absolutely adored it. It's the first movie of the year that I think absolutely everyone should go see, regardless of whether or not you've seen or were a fan of the first one.
10 Cloverfield Lane is a near perfect film, I loved every second of it. I loved the performances, particularly John Goodmans downright Buffalo Bill-ish performance. The direction is some of the most stellar suspenseful and anxiety-inducing direction I've seen since Sicario. I feel like this movie is going to divide a lot of people, mainly on the ending, but I'm one of the people who absolutely adored it. It's the first movie of the year that I think absolutely everyone should go see, regardless of whether or not you've seen or were a fan of the first one.
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