10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) Dir: Dan Trachtenberg
- Ridley Coote
- May 14
- 2 min read
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I have been wanting to watch this 2016 sci-fi thriller, directed by Dan Trachtenberg, and produced by J.J. Abrams, for quite some time now. I knew that this was a very different film to the cult classic found footage horror that was the first 'Cloverfield' film, but I kind of liked the idea of a different perspective of that universe.
Not only was this film very different thematically from its predecessor, but it was also shot completely different. Where the first had used handheld camerawork to great effect, this took a far more traditional approach, which ultimately worked far better with the story. A lot of the shot choices gave the film a claustrophobic, enclosed feel, by design, which was very effective.
The story was thrilling, if a little predictable in nature. I thought it was an interestingly insular take on the alien invasion narrative laid-out in the first film. It was very unique, in comparison. The film definitely worked better with the knowledge provided by the first film, though it certainly wasn't a must-have requirement by any means. As much as it was predictable, I still enjoyed the ride this film took me on thoroughly.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead gave a predominantly strong performance in her leading role, in which she was able to elicit a great sense of both fear and determination. This allowed her to create a decent bond with the audience, as she attempted to traverse her situation. She had some very good scenes in the second half of the film especially.
I thought John Goodman was superb. He absolutely nailed this role - his character work was so good. He seemed to understand exactly how to present himself for his character to come across as both a positive and negative presence. This was easily one of the best live-action performances of his career, for my money.
Unfortunately, John Gallagher Jr. was the weakest of the three main actors, and by some distance, although, it is worth saying that his acting was still fairly good - just not as much as the other two. He felt quite genuine, and was certainly able to make his interactions with Winstead feel natural, but he lacked a little bit of chemistry with Goodman, in my opinion.
Overall, I liked this claustrophobic little thriller a lot, despite its main weakness; that being its predictability. It wasn't hard to work out what was going to happen and when, but, for what it's worth, I thought the film did it in an entertaining way. I was never bored, and I wanted to see everything play out regardless of what I thought was going to happen. I quite enjoyed how different from the original it felt. It was quite nice that one could watch this independently from the first film and not have a lesser viewing experience.
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