(Cole's Take) Cloverfield Lane 2016 * * * 1/2 Stars

Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Year: 2016
Rated PG-13
Rating: * * * 1/2 Stars (Click on the rating link to see Cole's on-site review)
Cast: John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr.

Written by Cole Pollyea

2016 is looking strong for movies―and I’m not just talking about Scorsese’s Silence, scheduled for a November release. Rather, I’m talking about the future based on what’s already been released. In February, we had what I called “The movie’s movie” in Hail Caesar, and in early March we had Zootopia, a brilliant children's film that will no doubt receive attention from the Academy next year. In the latter half of the month of March, we get one of the most unexpectedly enthralling, suspenseful moviegoing experiences in recent years in 10 Cloverfield Lane. This unique, part-abduction, part-possible-apocalyptic tale will no doubt remind those of you who have seen it of 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow, a movie that also caught me off guard (in the best possible sense).

10 Cloverfield Lane follows the misfortune of Michelle, our protagonist, who is driving along on mission to abandon her rocky relationship when she is hit by a maniac driver and wakes up in the confines of a small basement bedroom, chained to the bed. While convinced that she is being held captive, her “captor”, played marvelously by John Goodman, tries to tell her that he has saved her life, that there is a nuclear war and that the air is contaminated; in short,  this compels her to stay, along with the fact that her leg is injured from the car accident. To divulge any more would be to corrupt the seamless string of events that play out perfectly, ebbing and flowing to the haunting denouement.

While Goodman doesn’t have a whole lot of leading roles under his belt, you wouldn’t know it when you watch him on screen here. His portrayal of the sincere-appearing yet more or less strange survivalist is enough to keep your eyes glued to the screen. Several scenes of physical acting (hands shaking vigorously, cornering Michelle) are just as captivating as his chilling delivery of the acute dialogue. His prowess, though, is not all that does, however. In addition to the compelling performance of Mary Elizabeth Winstead, which doesn’t disappoint in any single frame, we also have an endearing portrayal of a clueless local by John Gallagher Jr. who is also sharing the shelter with the two of them.

Newbie Dan Trachtenberg (and by newbie I mean that he has never directed, produced, or written a feature film before) does a marvelous job of getting the most out of the eerie tone that was so well captured in the screenplay and production design of the movie. To say that he has a bright future is an understatement; with a debut like 10 Cloverfield Lane, it’s likely that his contribution to the mystery genre of filmmaking is going to be tremendous.

Now, 10 Cloverfield Lane isn’t going to win any Academy Award (it’s not on a great enough scale). But it is nonetheless quality filmmaking. In my best effort to describe it, I’d say that it has equal parts Agatha Christie, J.J. Abrams, and Barton Fink. It cannot be emphasized enough, though, that 10 Cloverfield Lane is a wholly original film.

Written by Cole Pollyea