The film “Cloverfield, 10” (2016), moviegoers' reviews are positioned as a fantastic chamber thriller in which suspense is perfectly sustained, and metaphors are cleaned to a shine. The picture has a high rating of IMDb: 7.30.
In strict secrecy
Producer and director JJ Abrams loves intrigue. It does not apply to those filmmakers who give out the secrets of the production of their new projects. JJ does everything possible to keep everything secret as long as possible. According to reviews of the film “Cloverfield 10,” the release of the tape was officially announced a month and a half before the world premiere. And its production took place in an atmosphere of strict secrecy. Therefore, when it finally became known that the debut director Dan Trachtenberg finished work on a thriller, conceptually related to the horror "Monstro" (Cloverfield - in the original) for a wide audience and most Hollywood artisans, it was a big surprise that this project was shot under Conditional name "Valencia".
Creators
Domestic distributors at the request of the studio and clearly at a loss did not name the tape “Monstro-2” in the adapted Russian version. The compatriot reviewers, compiling reviews of the film “Cloverfield, 10,” indicated that the picture was indirectly related to the mega-popular blockbuster that triumphantly marched across the screens eight years ago.
Formally, the thriller belongs to the franchise of D. D. Abrams, but the creators consider it not a sequel, but rather a "spiritual successor." The picture was initially positioned as a completely independent project, but the authors at some point decided to make it up for Monstro (2008).
Work on the script was started by Damien Chazel, who soon left the project because of a proposal to take a director's chair in the drama film Obsession. Director Dan Trachtenberg, a 34-year-old advertiser who announced himself as a Portal short for a computer game of the same name, happily agreed to stage Cloverfield 10. Reviews his debut received enthusiastic and meritorious. Film critics of all stripes unanimously decided - for the full-length debut work, the film is simply excellent: masterfully set scenes, special effects are minimized, but psychological stress is inflated to the maximum.
High concept
The movie “Cloverfield”, according to the authors, is impossible to analyze in detail without the presence of spoilers, so most of them in their reviews limited themselves to general comments:
- Among the advantages of the project, ordinary shooting was distinguished, since the aesthetics of found footage, wittyly used in Monstro, went out of fashion.
- The plus of the picture was called a high concept. The thriller is entirely built around a desperate and bold idea, albeit not innovative, but looking original and fresh.
- An important achievement of the creators was, according to reviewers, the budget of the movie, which became a wonderful example of economical filmmaking. Indeed, for the entire filming process, only 15 million was spent, unlike the first picture, whose budget amounted to $ 25,000,000.
Plot
The main character Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), having quarreled with her next boyfriend, overwhelmed with negative emotions, leaves New Orleans in a hurry . The radio in the car transmits emergency messages, including an unplanned rolling blackout in all southern states. At this very moment, the heroine gets into an accident, her car turns into a ditch.
Girl comes to life in an unfamiliar room. All her wounds were carefully treated, but for some reason, her hand was handcuffed to the battery. Soon, a heavy bearded man comes to her with a sullen look and reports that while Michelle was unconscious, the United States was attacked in a massive manner and the atmosphere is now infected. The jailer or savior Howard prudently built a bunker on his site, so only they survived. After a while, the heroine meets another inhabitant of the shelter - a young man Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.), a participant in the construction of a bunker, with a broken arm.
Further retelling the development of the storyline, while maintaining the intrigue of the narrative, is not possible. Reviews of the film “Cloverfield 10” hint to the viewer that before the finale they will have to observe the development of the relationship of the main characters, within the same location until the climax.
Stylish and compact
The viewer sees everything that happens in the tape from the point of view of the main character, there are no frames without her participation in the timing, which contributes to the optimal effect of immersion. He also contributes to the feeling that events are happening in real time.
Film critics, analyzing "Cloverfield 10", reviews about the film were left competent. They pointed out that there are temporary leaps forward in the tape, but there are no other foreign inclusions like flashbacks. Any references to the past are contained exclusively in the dialogue of the characters, so most of the root causes remain behind the scenes.
This fact was identified by many experts as the only drawback of the project. The beholder does not know much about the heroes, he can only judge them by their behavior and actions in real time.
Competent narrative structure
The film “Cloverfield 10” (2016), the reviews and reviews of which we provide in our article, has an interesting feature. So, fans of the genre argue that in most cases, in such paintings, emphasis is placed on the dialogue of the characters, but in the work of Dan Trachtenberg, the situation is different. You can’t call the film purely conversational, because the script is more than inventive, the creators managed to equip a lot of different situations in 104 minutes, prompting the heroes to take decisive actions.
The thriller is well-structured: between the tense episodes and conversational scenes found the perfect balance, adding a sense of realism and naturalness.
Very dense atmosphere
Rereading reviews of the film “Cloverfield 10,” the viewer cannot fail to note that many film critics determine the development of the events of the picture as slow. However, every second author says that this is good for the picture, and the tape attracts the attention of the beholder.
Dan Traktenberg’s project lacks extra scenes and meaningless dialogs. The director seems to tease the viewer, throwing up all the new details that cause a lot of questions. The storyline changes its direction more than once, and this seems quite reasonable. Particularly pleasing is the lack of awkward, “twists for the sake of twists” sucked from a finger. Sometimes it works against the film, leveling the feeling of reality of what is happening. In Cloverfield 10, each plot twist looks reasonable and natural.
Casting cast
The film "Cloverfield 10", the actors and roles of which were selected under the vigilant control of the ubiquitous producer JJ Abrams, has another advantage - the ensemble of actors. Thanks to his excellent game, the picture is kept at a decent level.
The pretty lead singer Mary Elizabeth Winstead reliably managed to convey the whole range of emotions of her heroine: from suspicion and distrust, to depression. It is no coincidence that the American actress was awarded the title “Queen of Scream,” Winstead often starred in horror films (“Destination 3,” “Black Christmas,” “Something,” “Death Proof,” and others).
John Goodman, reincarnated as an extremely strange, almost half-mad Howard - the owner of the bunker, posing as far from who he is, was especially distinguished. Thanks to his professionalism, the actor did not slip into the image of a caricatured psychopath. The winner of the Golden Globe and Emmy awards is familiar to the audience in the films Big Lebowski, King Ralph, Crew, Artist, Bachelor Party III.
Known in the image of an abstruse young man in the television movie "News Service" John Gallagher Jr. perfectly revealed the image of the builder-gouging - the third participant in history. The filmography of the actor contains only 21 pictures, among which “Silence”, “Machine of the Heart”, “John Hex”, “Law and Order” are considered especially significant.