Nothing Shaky About This

Rating: 8/10 (13 March 2016)

Dan Trachtenberg and J.J. Abrams are either absolute geniuses, or contemptuous trolls. Because, by calling the film 10 Cloverfield Lane, they duped all of social media into thinking that this was a sequel to the 2008 found-footage monster movie, Cloverfield. Boy, did they get you all good. I'd give this a spoiler alert, but as a cinephile, I know better, and so should all of you. I sniffed out the "hype" culture surrounding this film from the minute it dropped unexpectedly online.
But a film being "overhyped" is certainly not the same thing as a film being bad, disappointing, or even just O.K. 10 Cloverfield Lane turns out to be better than anyone thought it was going to be. This is a brilliant return-to-form for the psychological thriller genre. I was reminded the whole time of Misery. What I mean is, it's a film that freaks you out, without ever being gory and overly stylized. This film never jumps through hoops to scare you, and yet it's lack of effort scares you even more. Films like this used to be made much more often, but that was a time when films weren't made for profit. I guess that's the reason as to why they named it 10 Cloverfield Lane. They knew it was a great film, but they had to make sure it made money.. by attaching Cloverfield to it. Sure, it's lame, but at least a whole new audience can have a whole new appreciation for the psychological thriller!
My praise goes straight to John Goodman. It feels like a decade since we last saw him on screen, or at least that's what it seems, because I'm wondering to myself, where has this guy been? He's one of the great actors. He is electrifying in this. He's a monster, and no, I don't mean the kind that destroyed Manhattan in the 2008 film. We never know what he's about, why he's so crazed, and how much he was fabricating the truth about the situation he put our main character in, but the film keeps us guessing. In the end, we aren't given all the answers, and neither were we given a "gotcha" style ending, that would've left the audience howling, as expected. But that's the charm of this film. Sometimes, less is more, and less isn't at all what hype surrounding this movie wanted you to think. Yet, here we are, we all ended up seeing a great film, and that's all that matters.
I left the theater pretty satisfied, and pretty entertained. Might I say, so far, 2016 has been an awesome year at the movies, and if it keeps up, I'm going to have a blast.