The links between this film and Cloverfield are tenuous
at best. And make no mistake, this is very much being sold on its potential
connection to that film, what with not only the name Cloverfield being in the
title but how it’s also emphasised in both the film’s trailers and the opening
credits. If I had to try and find some connections, I guess there’s some
correlation with how both deal with how everyday people handle how their lives
can be so suddenly changed, and drastically at that, by the appearance of…
let’s say ‘foreign elements’. But that’s surprisingly superficial if there is meant to be a connection and, if
we’re being honest, the director Dan Trachtenberg has been dicking around with
people concerning this film anyway so I don’t think official word on the matter
should be trusted. What the hell is it with J.J. Abrams and seriously annoying
marketing? Don’t get me wrong, the trailer for this film is all kinds of
awesome, but selling on the name of a film that didn’t get nearly the
recognition that it should have is more than a little screwy. I could speculate
further but, considering how a running joke in this film is how much John
Goodman buys into conspiracy theories, I don’t want to encourage behaviour that
the film actively mocks.
Anyway, massive tangent but that seriously did bug me for a
bit upon leaving the theatre. Time to get into the film itself and… holy hell.
The film opens on some truly gorgeous and eerily vacant camera work from DOP
Jeff Cutter, setting up an atmosphere of utter dread and isolation that the
film somehow manages to keep persistent throughout the entire film. On that
merit alone, this film deserves some props because, seriously, how many films
nowadays are able to keep that stable a tone for its entirety? This film is
fucking terrifying, I’m not going to throw stones about it, and that is thanks
to three main factors. The first is the aforementioned camera work which, while
throwing the audience for a loop with the initially wide open shots of empty
fields and roads, makes the bunker feel at once spacious, homely,
claustrophobic and skin-crawlingly unsettling. The second is the music by Bear
McCreary, who seems to warp string sections and electronic bumps and bleeps
into the kind of soundtrack that is designed to give people heart attacks. Honestly,
the weakest part concerning music is, oddly enough, a part lifted from the
trailer involving I Think We’re Alone Now; without the sickly slowdown, it just
swerves away from the rest of the film in a way that isn’t exactly healthy. The
third is the amazing cast, comprised of only three on-screen actors, one
off-screen cameo from Bradley Cooper and a brief appearance by Suzanne Cryer
as… well, someone who makes the core dilemma a bit murkier to figure out.
John Goodman, in no uncertain terms, is in prime form with
easily one of the most terrifying performances I’ve seen since in the last few
years, right up there with Joel Edgerton in The Gift and Jake Gyllenhaal in
Nightcrawler. He sticks to this weird holding pattern between potentially
trustworthy and balls-to-the-wall crazy, something that is also maintained throughout the entire film. Seriously, even for as
many loops as we are thrown given his character, there’s still this element of
sympathy to be felt with his character and, between him and whatever may lay in
waiting outside the bunker, he often feels like the ‘safe’ option all things
considered despite what he ends up doing, something that ends up making him
even more horrifying as the psycho that, unfortunately, may be your only hope.
Winstead, someone whom I have been waiting to impress me again ever since her
heavily underrated turn in Sky High, is fantastic as our focal point, managing
to pull off MacGyver-like ingenuity without it coming across as being beyond
her believable skills. She’s genuinely kind of badass in this thing. Gallagher
Jr. arrives at a similar point to Goodman, only he’s a lot more on the level
from the get-go… and yet, with everything going on, even he comes across as pretty suspicious. He also has some very helpful
chemistry with Winstead, which ends up defusing the tension at just the right
moments to help the overall package.
Coming from an assistant editor, an associate producer and
that guy who made a film about some jazz drummer, this is an astoundingly sharp
script. No scenes feel like they’re just taking up space, not even the
aforementioned Tommy James moment, and no line of dialogue ends up being
wasted. Everything either ends up building some form of character or furthering
the already astronomical tension levels. Character motivations are informed
upon but not necessarily spelled out, mostly with Howard whose backstory and
reasoning makes sense for why he does what he does and, like I said, the fact
that he may be a saviour just makes everything that much more unsettling. And
then the science-fiction elements start to kick in… and I weirdly don’t have
much to complain about. Don’t get me wrong, it’s more than a little jarring to
suddenly feel like I’m watching a completely different film… except it doesn’t
really end up feeling like that at all. The characters stay consistent, as does
the tone and production methods, so it ends up still making sense within the
film itself. Considering how the ending was changed after Abrams got his hands
on it, it would be understandable to foresee a sort-of From Dusk Till Dawn
style genre switch-up. Thankfully, it keeps a suitable pace and doesn’t betray
what came before it since, weirdly, said elements are actually subtly but
effectively set up throughout the film. It takes an awful lot of effort to pull
off a gambit like that.
All in all, regardless of whatever connection this may or
may not have with Cloverfield, this is still an amazingly well-crafted
thriller, full of gripping moments and excellent performances. John Goodman may
have gotten to flex some intimidating muscle thanks to his work with the Coen
brothers, but nothing quite this nightmare-inducing. Even its marketing doesn’t
end up harming it, since this at least doesn’t have quite as inordinate an
amount of hype to it as, say, that other
sci-fi film J.J. Abrams was involved in from last year. Without a shadow of a
doubt, this is one to check out.
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