10 Cloverfield Lane movie review

Here's what you need to know; after a nasty car wreck, Michelle wakes up in a bomb shelter of all places, and is told by Howard, the shelter's owner, that the world above has been attacked, and that the surface isn't safe. But Michelle and her fellow bunker dweller, Emmett, grow suspicious of Howard, and his real intentions for keeping them in the bunker, and not knowing if he's truthful or insane, they begin to plot their escape.

This film's introduction isn't something I expected, a subtle, dialogueless introduction to the life of Michelle, in which we see her leaving her boyfriend, and then the car wreck; which is to the soft subtlety of the introduction what a baseball bat is to your face. Now as ever, on to the characters, and there isn't exactly a large selection of them here. Michelle is someone you instantly gravitate to, a character who's emotional and afraid, but equally as smart and resourceful, and she's played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, which is never a bad deal. As the film goes on we learn more about her character, but not in a forced, expositional way, in a way that flows and works with the rest of the film. Emmett is similar, as the 2 interact and become friends and we learn more about him, and he has a lot of the likable qualities that Michelle has, he's no fool. and then there's Howard, who is scary. I really mean that, he's huge, he's looming, and the guy just gives off bad vibes, like he's walking the line between reasonable, decent guy and full on psychopath, his mere presence in screen is one of the most unsettling and disempowering things I've seen in a cinema, and I mean that, most of the scenes he's in are racked with tension, but it isn't the kind of tension I value in things like Thunderbirds, it's a far more personal, anxious tension, it's difficult to describe, but while it's something I adore about this film, the anxiety really does bother you, and in a psychological thriller like this, that's perfect. This is also another film that doesn't feel long, it being a film about 3 people stuck in a bomb shelter, it could very easily have been boring, but instead the time is taken up by legitimate moments of character, and heart stopping anxiety, and the plot moves at a good pace, with of course, some twists and turns along the way, I would give a specific, but A I don't want to spoil the film too much, and B there's too many to choose from. Including 1 big twist at the end of the film that you know is coming, a twist that is interesting, but I am not sure weather to like it or not. which finally brings me onto subtlety, while the film has it's louder, more intense moments that make you want to hide from John Goodman, there's a lot of littler things that work just as well. As I said to my friends after seeing the film, it's more ambiguous elements aren't like the side plot syndrome Batman v Superman died of, because while that film was messy, this one is deliberate, subtle, it tries to get in your head, to make you feel the claustrophobia and anxiety and at times even shock, and it completely nails it.

This is a really short review, but this is a film I don't really know how to explain, there's something about it that really bothers me, and I love this movie, I legitimately do love it. It's a slow, subtle, anxiety filled thriller that succeeds in making you really uncomfortable, and it's deeper elements of which the film obviously has some are food for thought. The ending does, in some ways, feels at odds with the rest of the film, but even then, it's interesting and tension riddled, perhaps even just as nightmare educing as John Goodman, who is one frightening mother fucker in this film. 10 Cloverfield Lane is an absolute must watch.