My Review of "10 Cloverfield Lane"

As of this time everything is closed due to the Coronavirus. It makes writing and watching movies a little bit easier but I'm sure a lot of us would like to participate in social gatherings again. I thought it would be interesting to talk about a movie about self isolation since we're all in self isolation mode right now.

10 Cloverfield Lane came out back in 2016. There was another movie prior to this in 2008 called simply Cloverfield. You don't have to watch that movie to understand this one. 10 Cloverfield Lane is a story of its own that just happens to be in the same universe as the original Cloverfield movie. I hope I didn't lose you there. Basically this is a separate story of its own.

In this movie the main character Michelle, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead gets into a horrific car accident. When she awakens from the accident she's in this dingy room that almost resembles a jail cell. She's still injured and she's also cuffed to her bed.

Not too long after she wakes up she discovers that this character Howard, played by John Goodman had saved her from the wreckage. What seemed to be a jail cell is actually an emergency bunker. Howard is a really paranoid guy. His paranoia helped fuel him to create the complicated this complicated bunker. In that bunker, they're ready to hide away from all natural or unnatural things that come their way.

Even better, they're not alone in this bunker. There's a character named Emmett, played by John Gallagher Jr. that lives with Howard. Emmett isn't the brightest of characters and seems to be very agreeable. He somehow convinced Howard into letting him stay with him in the bunker.

So these three characters are isolated for probably months. Little by little Michelle starts to question what's actually going on. She starts to question whether it's actually safe to go outside or not. It doesn't help that Howard's paranoia persona makes him seem really shifty and unstable.

The movie goes back and forth. It makes you feel as if Howard's lying or at least keeping something from Michelle. Just when you think Howard's lying a new clue will hit you and you'll think that Howard is doing things for the best of the group. Your mind will not know who to believe anymore.

This is actually a pretty low budget movie so there's not a ton of special effects. The whole movie is based on the three main characters. It's basically just the three of them in a bunker. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman and John Gallagher Jr. do really great jobs in making you question what's really going on.

I won't ruin the whole movie for you but I thought it was highly entertaining. Seeing as we're all in isolation you may get a little more freaked out or maybe you'll have more sympathetic to the characters.

There's a bit of a disconnect for me at the end of the movie. I get it but it really goes zero to a hundred really quick. The ending is the only thing that makes me think that perhaps people should watch the first Cloverfield to understand but really you don't have to. This is the only connection to the original Cloverfield to this movie.

It's really intense and I think it's intensified because we got to know the three characters so well. I wouldn't recommend this movie for those with heart conditions.

Overall, I really liked this movie and watching it again will still be entertaining because you'll get to see little clues that you may have missed the first time around. A great movie to check out when you're in self isolation. I give this movie an 8 out of 10. It's a great watch and I would recommend this to almost anyone.