MARCH 15, 2016
Last week, respected Oscar blogger Kris Tapley threw a grenade into the 2017 awards discussion (already?) when he said that he just saw the year’s first Oscar-level performance in a film that had opened on Friday.
Most Oscar-watchers presumed that Tapley was referring to Helen Mirren’s riveting turn in the new drone thriller “Eye in the Sky.” [ECT review: https://exactchangetoday.com/2016/01/psiff-helen-mirren-is-at-her-steely-best-in-the-gripping-drone-thriller-eye-in-the-sky/] However, Tapley had another performance in mind that was way out of left field:
John Goodman in the new thriller “10 Cloverfield Lane.”
Goodman has had a remarkable career, starting with his early days in musical theatre, his segue into television garnering acclaim in both drama and comedy, until he has finally become one of the most respected character actors around, particularly for his work with the Coen Brothers in such classics as “Barton Fink” and “The Big Lebowski.”
And while I still have doubts that Goodman will be standing on the Dolby Theatre stage next February with an Oscar in his hand, Tapley did us all a great service in bringing to critical attention a performance and a film that otherwise might have been overlooked.
I called “10 Cloverfield Lane” a thriller, and it is that, but it’s so much more. The film is seen through the eyes of a young woman, Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who hurriedly packs her belongings in a box to flee (evoking Janet Leigh in the opening of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”), but once on the road, her car is hit and falls into a ravine. Michelle wakes up and finds herself with a brace on her leg, chained to a wall in a dank bunker. Immediately, our bearings are thrown off — is this going to be like “Room” or more like “Saw”?
Turns out, it’s neither. Enter Norman (Goodman), a Navy veteran and a survivalist, who claims he saw her accident and came to her aid before “it” happened. “It” was some kind of nuclear explosion or alien invasion, which so poisoned the air that everyone above ground is now dead. Norman says he was able to get the unconscious Michelle to safety in his fallout bunker just in time. When she finally gains his trust, Norman tosses her a key to unlock herself.
Once free, she sees the amazing provisions this survivalist has hoarded, including a year’s worth of food. Michelle also learns that there’s a third person in the bunker — Emmett (John Gallagher, Jr.), a local who helped Norman to build the bunker and may (or may not) be there of his own free will.
Though Norman is barking orders as if he is still in the Navy, eventually the trio settle into a regular routine with DVDs, board games, and a vintage jukebox, where they provide their life underground with a soundtrack. (One of their favorites, Tommy James & the Shondells’ “I Think We’re Alone Now” seems eerily apt.) Watching the three survivors enjoying dinner, the film switches yet again into a kind of black comedy where Norman is Daddy, presiding over a nuclear family downstairs, while a nuclear holocaust may be happening upstairs.
What kind of movie is this? First, you’re confused, then you’re intrigued and finally you can’t wait to see what twist awaits you around the corner. That’s my idea of a great thriller. That’s “10 Cloverfield Lane.”
And that’s not even all the twists, including one just before the end, which several critics have called “unhinged.” I think it’s delicious.
It’s rare to see an original 3-character film (especially one released by a major studio like Paramount), but it helps to build up the tension among them in the bunker. Tension is the overwhelming emotion I felt while watching “10 Cloverfield Lane,” a tension I haven’t felt in the movies since the Oscar-winning film “Whiplash,” which is not surprising, since this film was co-written by Damien Chazelle, who received an Oscar nomination for writing the white-knuckle script of “Whiplash.”
Goodman is most well known for his amusingly bombastic characters, such as his movie studio execs in “Argo” and last year’s “Trumbo.” But here he shows another side — as the captor, he’s quiet, which could mean that he’s kind or that he’s creepy (or both). But when he does get loud, his outbursts aren’t bombastic as before but bone-chillingly terrifying. His performance is pitched to keep the audience off-balance, which is just what the filmmakers succeed in doing as well.
Besides Goodman’s superb work, Winstead is the film’s anchor. When we’re screaming at her to get out of there, we’re with her all the way — her character work is detailed and helps us to stay invested in her character. Gallagher is amassing quite an impressive film resume — his best-known work is as “Room” Oscar-winner Brie Larson’s co-star in the acclaimed indie “Short Term 12” — and he adds to it even more here with his “is-he-or-isn’t-he” performance. First-time director Dan Trachtenberg makes a vivid debut, and here’s a word in praise of Bear McCreary’s ultra-scary score.
“10 Cloverfield Lane,” which was largely filmed under-the-radar thanks to producer J.J. Abrams, has been called a “spiritual sequel” to Abrams’ 2008 found-footage monster movie “Cloverfield,” in which the creature famously decapitated the Statue of Liberty and sent the head rolling down the streets of Manhattan.
As I was watching “10 Cloverfield Lane,” I was wondering how a 3-character film set in one room could possibly be a sequel to a monster movie? Then it hit me.
Uh-oh.
GRADE: A-
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