10 Cloverfield Lane

The buzz surrounding 10 Cloverfield Lane has been at an all time high in the two month since the film was announced back in January. J.J. Abrams has a way of making audiences be deeply captivated by something we know so little about. The Cloverfield aspect of the title alone brings back vivid memories of one of the best viral marketing campaigns and how it could all tie together. It’s the mystery surrounding the film that draws you in and the same mystery that keeps you intrigued from one moment to the next.

After a fight with her partner Ben, Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) decides to grab her things and get out of town for a bit. It’s not far before she gets into a car accident and blacks out on the side of the road. When she wakes up, she finds herself chained to a wall deep inside an underground bunker. Howard (John Goodman) says that the world has basically come to an end and that he saved her, much to Michelle’s skepticism. Regardless, she’s now trapped inside with Howard and Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.), and she has all the time in the world to figure out the truth of what is going on.

And that’s exactly what you’ll spend most of the film trying to figure out as well. 10 Cloverfield Lane does an amazing job at keeping the mystery alive. John Goodman delivers one of the best performances of his career as he messes with your head with his good guy/bad guy routine. One second he can appear all friendly and innocent like a cute and cuddly teddy bear, but the next moment he’ll show a darker side that’ll make you wonder if the world really did go to hell or if it’s all just some lie he’s telling in order to keep Michelle locked down below with him. His performance is intense and unnerving and keeps you enthralled for every moment.

The film works so well as a psychological thriller because not everything is fully explained. Something is always hidden, either through the lies the characters tell or just the vagueness of the story. I’ll tell you right now, the connections it has to Cloverfield aren’t really revealed. But it doesn’t matter. The film stands on its own merit. It reels you in with a curiosity about its interesting characters and then, in typical J.J. Abrams style, throws you for a loop in the third act.

10 Cloverfield Lane has some genuine WTF moments that’ll leave you wondering what is going on. It gets in your head and doesn’t leave. Sure, it may have had a brief period from when it was announced to when it was released, but this is one film that is going to be talked about for a while to come.