10 CLOVERFIELD LANE

Michelle leaves the apartment where she lives with her partner and, during the car journey in the middle of the night, is hit by another vehicle that sends her off the road and causes her to lose consciousness. A few hours later, the young woman wakes up in a room with a chain that ties her to a bed and a visible bandage on her leg. At first, she believes she is in danger and tries to free herself until the moment the door opens and a severe and unnerving figure of a man brings her food. It is Howard, who says he saved her life and brought her to a bunker he built in anticipation of a terrorist attack that, according to the man, has made the air unbreathable and full of radiation. Michelle, however, is not convinced by Howard's behaviors and explanations and, with the help of Emmett, another young man staying in the bunker, begins to investigate to understand what is really happening outside. Eight years later, J.J. Abrams returns to the scene of the crime. It was 2008, in fact, when his Bad Robot launched a production that changed the way of conceiving monster movies and contributed to the revaluation of the much-maligned POV style: we are talking about "Cloverfield" by Matt Reeves in which a monster of unclear origins invades and destroys Manhattan and everything is filmed by the camera of a guy who happens to be there by pure chance. The success was so enormous and unexpected that it pushed Abrams to think of a sequel that, however, except for the title, has little of the first chapter of the saga and presents several novelties, starting from the abandonment of the use of the subjective framing up to a completely overturned narrative structure. Characteristics that make this "10 Cloverfield Lane", directorial debut of Dan Trachtenberg, an autonomous and very successful film and, above all, a very intelligent and cunning operation as it does not seek to repeat the winning formula of the first. Forget then everything you saw in Reeves' film: away the mega party in the skyscraper, the urban settings and the high level of spectacularity guaranteed by the explosions in the streets of New York and the appearances of the imposing creature and its little ones (how not to remember the frantic clash in the subway). Trachtenberg builds a claustrophobic story all played on anxiety and continuous tension and to sharpen such sensations he uses only Michelle's point of view to allow the viewer to reconstruct the threads of the story minute by minute, like a huge interlocking mechanism corroded by the madness of the human mind. Every element works perfectly and the true highlight of the film, the backbone of the entire plot, is the care with which the three perfectly complementary protagonists are depicted; we have Howard, a gruff man and from the beginning not clear and at least ambiguous who tends to take command within the domestic microcosm; Michelle is a courageous and strong woman who tries in every way to discover what the master of the bunker is hiding; and finally there is Emmett whose weak and cowardly character leads him to be afraid of Howard, but at the same time to support the actions of the young woman. The interesting thing is that the characters of the characters evolve with the passing of the events and this gives the story a decidedly pleasant rhythm for long stretches. Of course, there are no empty passages and visible drops in rhythm, amplified by a perhaps excessive duration, but these are immediately put in the background by a final adrenaline-filled and dotted with well-made and functional special effects to create a minimum of connection with the first film, leaving numerous questions open about the origin of the attack from which the protagonists are hiding. Another leap in quality compared to the past is the cast that this time is of absolute level and in which stands out a phenomenal John Goodman, accompanied by the equally excellent Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Gallagher Jr. "10 Cloverfield Lane" is therefore an excellent starting point for the entire saga that, if it were to continue like this, could really offer many satisfactions to fans of the genre, and not only.