Butler's Cinema Scene

John Gallagher Jr., Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman

“10 CLOVERFIELD LANE” My rating: B

105 minutes | MPAA rating:PG-13

Intensely claustrophobic and impeccably acted, “10 Cloverfield Lane” is a mind-messer of a thriller with a forehead-slapping payoff.

In the wordless opening sequence, a young woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) packs her bags and flees her apartment, leaving behind a wedding ring and a ring of keys.

She’s cruising through the Louisiana countryside at night — listening to radio reports of a catastrophic electrical blackout along the Gulf Coast — when she’s involved in a bone-jarring accident.

Michelle (that’s her name) awakens in a musty cinderblock room, her leg in a splint and a chain limiting her mobility. Enter big beefy Howard (John Goodman), who explains that he pulled Michelle from the wreckage of her car and brought her here, to a bunker beneath his farmhouse. She should be thanking him for saving her life.

According to Howard, the world has come to an end. He’s not sure if it’s the result of nuclear or chemical war. Maybe it’s the doing of the Russians. Or possibly space aliens. (The film’s title, a reference to the 2008 found-footage alien invasion flick “Cloverfield,” should put canny viewers on alert.)

In any case, the air above ground is deadly and Howard announces that they’ll be holed up here for at least a year or two.  But not to worry — he’s been planning for this day for a long time. The bunker has enough supplies and equipment to easily keep three people alive.

Oh, yeah, there’s a third resident of the bunker.  Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.) is a mildly goofy good ol’ boy about Michelle’s age who for the last decade or so has been hired by Howard to work on the bunker.  At the first sign of trouble he showed up at Howard’s door. He seems like a doofus, but he may have more going on than can be gleaned at first examination.

Emmett assures the panicked Michelle that despite Howard’s ever-present sidearm and rampant paranoia, their host is an OK guy.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead…no signal

At least until he isn’t any more.

Produced by sci-fi/fantasy guru J.J. Abrams, written by Josh Campbell, Matthew Stuecken and Damien Chazelle, and effectively helmed by first-time feature director Dan Trachtenberg, “10 Cloverfield Lane” is part hostage drama, part escape movie, part apocalyptic nightmare.

It works because the setup has been so cannily manipulated and especially because of Goodman’s  performance, an alternately terrifying and calming blend of megalomaniac, authoritarian impulses  (he was a career military guy), easily-bruised feelings and flat-out crazy. He’s the sort of creep who’s a gracious host until he thinks you’re not sufficiently thankful.

Plus, there’s always an underlying sexual tension.

Director Trachtenberg has a high old time balancing homey domesticity — the bunker’s inhabitants pass the time with board games, old films on VHS, cooking projects and an old jukebox stocked with ’70s hits — against Michelle’s desperate quest to break out of the locked environment. And if she does make it out, what will she find?

| Robert W. Butler