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Sir Knight Michael J. Berish honored

Grief support group at Hoyt Library

<p>Before it became a sequel to an 8-year-old found footage movie called &#8220;Cloverfield,&#8221; &#8220;10 Cloverfield Lane&#8221; started as a script called &#8220;The Cellar.&#8221; It was never intended to be a sequel, or a sidequel &#8212; or whatever this is &#8212; to &#8220;Cloverfield.&#8221; This is important to know. Not just for those who haven&#8217;t seen this yet but for those who have. It explains why that third act twist feels like it was taken from another movie and awkwardly fused onto the end of &#8220;10 Cloverfield Lane.&#8221;</p><p>Obviously it was done to connect the films in a way that seems to suggest the &#8220;Cloverfield&#8221; franchise could be anthology based, but it also takes the film in a self-conscious, twisty-turny direction better suited for a lesser entry in the M. Night Shyamalan catalog. But before &#8220;10 Cloverfield Lane&#8221; buckles under the inherent expectations of its title, it&#8217;s a taut psychological thriller held together by strong performances from John Goodman and the underrated, overlooked Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Like last year&#8217;s &#8220;The Gift,&#8221; &#8220;10 Cloverfield Lane&#8221; becomes a better movie if you leave the theater 10 minutes before the closing credits start to roll.</p><p>&#8220;10 Cloverfield Lane&#8221; is a film with many twists. Too many twists, to be exact. But before &#8220;10 Cloverfield Lane&#8221; takes the bullet train to Crazy Town, it&#8217;s about a young woman named Michelle (Winstead) who, while on the run from her seemingly normal and calm sounding ex (the voice of Bradley Cooper), is run off the road by a pickup truck. Instead of waking up in a hospital, Michelle finds herself chained to a pipe in what appears to be a jail cell with an IV strapped to her arm. As it turns out Michelle was &#8220;saved&#8221; by a survivalist named Howard (Goodman) and placed, as Howard claims, &#8220;for her own protection,&#8221; in his doomsday bunker. According to Howard, the world as we knew it is over. Whether due to those pesky Russians or Martians, Earth&#8217;s atmosphere is comprised of poisonous green gas. Everyone you&#8217;ve ever known is just a memory. At this point, to write any more would ruin the various surprises that &#8220;10 Cloverfield Lane&#8221; has in store. However (*SPOILER ALERT*), at one point, Howard reveals that he owns a tub toilet, that is, a tub that also functions as a toilet! What? Yes! It&#8217;s nuts!</p><p>Earning points simply because he avoided the tired found footage aesthetic of its predecessor, director Dan Trachtenberg &#8212; whose previous experience was directing short promotional films &#8212; wrings an incredible amount of suspense from this stage bound and nearly static setting. Mostly taking place within the claustrophobic confines of Howard&#8217;s bunker (which looks like a cross between some Eastern European gulag and a Midwestern doublewide trailer), Trachtenberg eschews visual style and, through a series of tight close-ups, wisely focuses on his cast. Playing a character that is at once physically imposing and oddly matriarchal, Goodman is an enigma. Is he a madman or just a socially awkward oddball?</p><p>Scary and, at times, sympathetic Howard recalls the similarly mysterious (and frightening) character Goodman played in &#8220;Barton Fink.&#8221; Similarly, although functioning as a wide-eyed audience surrogate, Winstead ably holds her own against Goodman; even managing to bring an intensity that was lacking in her other genre roles (such as her turn in the already forgotten remake of John Carpenter&#8217;s &#8220;The Thing&#8221;).</p><p>For the most part, &#8220;10 Cloverfield Lane&#8221; is an effective character piece, a suspenseful sleeper that outmatches is gimmicky, and faintly unpleasant forebear. The only real sour note is its ending which needlessly escalates the film&#8217;s simple concept and turns &#8220;10 Cloverfield Lane&#8221; into something far more ridiculous.</p><p>By forcing &#8220;The Cellar&#8221; into the limiting confines of the &#8220;Cloverfield&#8221; franchise, J.J. Abrams has taken a sharp concept and made it a little duller. Nonetheless, &#8220;10 Cloverfield Lane&#8221; is still worth your precious time and &#8212; if you&#8217;re not torrenting it &#8212; your hard earned cash.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Dan Trachtenberg, center, talking with actors John Goodman, right, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead on the set of &#8220;10 Cloverfield Lane.&#8221; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_AP261695918155-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Dan Trachtenberg, center, talking with actors John Goodman, right, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead on the set of &#8220;10 Cloverfield Lane.&#8221; </caption0><photoCredit0>AP photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>&#8216;10 Cloverfield Lane&#8217; keeps viewers in suspense</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mike Sullivan | For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p>&#8220;10 Cloverfield Lane&#8221;</p><p>Starring: John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead</p><p>Director: Dan Trachtenberg</p><p>Rated: R</p><p>Length: 106 minutes</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Mike Sullivan is a movie reviewer for Weekender. Movie reviews appear weekly in Weekender.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Movie Review: “10 Cloverfield Lane” is a psychological thriller with many, many plot twists