Something to watch tonight: Thursday 30 May

10 Cloverfield Lane (Trachtenberg, 2016)

I was not a fan of the original Cloverfield movie – and I haven’t seen the third entry in the Cloverfield ‘universe’, The Cloverfield Paradox, which is on Netflix – but I was an instant fan of 10 Cloverfield Lane.

Luckily, it only shares a context6 with the other two films. You don’t need to have seen either of the others to appreciate it.

I reviewed it for the RNZ website back in the day. Here are some highlights:

A deliciously clever combination of thriller genres, it escalates elegantly before reaching a triumphant climax which would have provoked cheers from my audience if we could have summoned the breath.

…

We open on Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) hastily packing to leave her New Orleans apartment. On the road north, she avoids desperate calls from her jilted boyfriend and then – Boom! She’s off the road and unconscious, waking in her underwear, chained to a pipe in a concrete room. Creepy Howard (the great John Goodman) arrives to deliver food and tell her that there’s no point trying to escape… but not much else. So, she tries to escape.

A couple of attempts later and Howard, resigned, lets a little more slip. There’s been some kind of attack and they have retreated to an underground bunker he had been preparing for years. Also sharing the dwindling supplies is local boy, Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.), who helped Howard build the facility and knew where to head when the skies changed colour and the power went out.

They are stuck together, literally waiting for the air to clear, but Michelle still needs convincing. As Howard becomes less and less hinged, she is desperate to find out what’s going on above them – and whether the sounds she can hear above her are friend or foe.

That’s where plot summary must stop and gushing enthusiasm begins. First time director Dan Trachtenberg along with writers Josh Campbell, Matthew Stuecken and Damien Chazelle (a ring-in most famous for his Oscar-nominated debut Whiplash) have made something remarkable – a film that genuinely transcends genre. Or rather has absorbed all of them like an alien parasite, only to spit them back out again, one by one.

Today I learned that Trachtenberg has only made one feature since this, but it’s the well-regarded Predator prequel, Prey, in which the dreadlocked aliens arrive in pre-colonial North America and it’s up to the Comanche Nation to save the world. I missed that one first time around but it’s just moved a few notches higher up the ‘to watch’ list.

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Where to watch 10 Cloverfield Lane

Aotearoa: Streaming on Neon

Australia: Streaming on Binge

Canada: Streaming on Paramount+

Ireland, USA and UK: Digital rental from the usual outlets