Saturday, April 16, 2016

10 CloverField Road


Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, John Gallagher Jr., give incredible performances in this movie written by:
Josh CampbellMatthew StueckenDamien Chapelle and directed by: Dan Trachtenburg

This critic has not been inspired to write about art for many years but upon watching this masterpiece not once but twice on the big screen, faith is renewed in the powers of science fiction to awe. In what is a story of running away from commitment our hero Mary Elizabeth Winstead a new face, confronts all obstacles which are a many. Starting with her bondage by John Goodman, who's ass she kicks over and over again, to an incredible and even more enormous alien that has her trapped in an old truck 25 ft. above the ground. What is really remarkable about the film is that every moment and all the objects, lead to further understanding of what is happening in this nightmare that becomes reality.
The minimal set of an underground fall-out shelter is beautifully designed. It is claustrophobic and homey creepy with it's ducts and stairways to the outside world whose state of existence remains as uncertain as Goodman's multiple personalities. Winstead likewise shows us many emotions from superhero like confidence to utter fear and confusion. She moves a like dancer which she was and has the projection and nuance of a musician. This woman is a superstar watch out. John Gallagher also does a knock out job, in a cast from his own errors he is the ultimate victim. The guy everyone loves and feels sorry for, not too smart, kinda good looking in a not flashy way, really honest, we know he is going to take the bullet. John Goodman is just getting scarier and scarier with age. This gaze he has with monotone drall is the paranoid, veteran, survivalist, pedophile, that we all know but pretend is not our uncle's cousin. The weight he carries when he dances is the weight and reality of our unhealthy diets. It is the stored anxiety of Andy Warhol's soup cans on the shelf falling like our belief in the outside world, our government,  to protect us from the future.  But we don't need them, not with Winstead and her Leonardo Divinci like drawing and fashion sense. Thank you for making a movie that does not rely on all the same formulas and keeps us guessing.