10 Cloverfield Lane is one of the best surprises I’ve ever had at the movies. It came out of nowhere, got folded into the Cloverfield family at the last minute, and turned out to be a near-perfect thriller.
The setup is lean. Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) walks out on her fiancé, hits the highway at night, and gets run off the road. She wakes up chained to a wall in an underground bunker. Howard, the man who saved her (or maybe took her), says the air outside will kill her.
John Goodman is terrifying. One minute Howard is a sweet, awkward host serving dinner and playing board games. The next he’s slamming his fist on the table over a word game, and you’re scared to breathe: you never know which Howard is about to walk into the room.
That uncertainty drives everything. Is he crazy? Is he telling the truth? Could it be both? You’re guessing right alongside Michelle the whole way. Emmett, the third person in the bunker, brings some much-needed warmth, and a jukebox scene set to “I Think We’re Alone Now” is creepy and funny at once.
Still, Winstead owns this movie. Her character, Michelle, is smart and resourceful. She’s always working on a plan, even while she smiles at Howard across the dinner table.
Here’s what got me. Early on, she admits she once watched a father hurt his child, froze, and ran. She’s been running ever since, and the movie never forgets it. When the final stretch puts a real choice in front of her, it lands as the payoff to everything she’s told us. I won’t say more, but one turn of the wheel tells her whole story.
Love tense, edge-of-your-seat thrillers? Watch this one. Go in knowing nothing and let Goodman do the rest.
See 10 Cloverfield Lane on TMDB
