Yeah, yeah, better late than never. And in this case, it really is since this is one of the best movies I’ve seen this year along with the equally unpredictable sci-fi film “Midnight Special” which I’ll review tomorrow.
What Works: Sadly, it feels like most of the people who were going to see this already have, and those that haven’t may have had the film’s many twists and turns spoiled for them. Yet for those that still haven’t watched it or been told what happens I’ll only say that having a bunker’s-eye view of an alien invasion is a surprisingly original take on the genre.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays a young woman who has a car crash and wakes up in a strange bunker with two men she’s never met. The set-up is as much Hitchcock as it is H.G. Wells and is all the better for it. The movie never really lets you see where it’s going, and keeps throwing you off as to exactly how trustworthy these two men are or what in the hell is happening in the outside world. Newsroom’s David Gallagher has a slyness beneath his small-town yokel and John Goodman is a revelation, reminding you just how good he is in case you forgot. The direction is crisp, tension-building, and the script takes time to actually show how the characters are driving the action rather than the other way around.
What Doesn’t: No real complaints. Some of the ending is a little too murky, (literally) dark, and hard to make out, but I think pretty much anyone watching this movie will leave fairly happy.
What I Would Have Done Differently: This film is better than the original “Cloverfield” in almost every way, yet the one thing that film did—clearly showed the alien-monster in vivid detail—is missing here. Still, it’s a different kind of suspense, whereas “Cloverfield” chose rampaging, Godzilla-style action set pieces, “Cloverfield Lane” prefers to explore its characters, get to know a tight space instead of New York streets, and let the tension build naturally.