I saw 10 Cloverfield Lane on the weekend. It’s a movie best enjoyed by knowing absolutely nothing about it going in. I was intrigued by the trailer, featuring John Goodman and (to me) a couple of unknown actors. The premise is pretty straightforward: A young woman who’s just had a row with her boyfriend is driving through Louisiana when she gets in a wreck. She wakes up in an underground room shackled to the wall with an IV drip in one arm and a jury-rigged cast on one leg.
Okay, so this is Room redux, right? Not so fast. John Goodman tells her that there’s been some sort of event outside this bomb shelter and it could be a year or two before it’s safe to venture out. Not to worry. Goodman is a good paranoid conspiracy freak, so he’s got everything they need to survive. Just him, her and a neighbor who helped him build the shelter who pushed his way in at the last second. So, the question is: did something happen to the rest of the world, or is this all an elaborate ruse to keep her prisoner? The answers, as they come, are surprising but, mostly, foreshadowed. Or at least the basis is laid for them. On the other hand, not every question is answered. We’re left to wonder about Meghan’s fate, as well as that of the woman in the photograph. Goodman’s performance is compelling.
It’s almost like a three-person play, given that the set is limited. Some really good surprises and jolts. And then comes the third act, which starts with a chemical bath and ends with…whoa. Wow-eee. Don’t read anything more about it: go see it. You won’t be sorry.
We watched the Lifetime version of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None over the weekend. There have been many adaptations of this classic novel: Original title: 10 Little very-non-PCs. Renamed 10 Little Also non-PCs. In this version, they’re soldiers, so I guess that’s okay. This is the most faithful adaptation with which I’m familiar. Most movies pull the punch at the end. Not so here. Some familiar faces: Miranda Richardson, Sam Neill, Burn Gorman (Torchwood). If you like a good locked-island mystery and are jonesing for some Downton Abbey vibe (it’s set in 1939), check this out.
I watched the second season of Bosch on Amazon Prime. The premise is that instead of exploring how cops work on crimes, the series (based on the Michael Connelly novels) looks at how the crimes work on the cops. A pornographer is shot by the side of the interstate—that’s the main case. His widow is played by Jeri Ryan. The story pulls in the Armenian mob and a cadre of bad cops. One “problem” with the season is that there’s a very recognizable actor playing what seems to be a minor role, so it’s apparent early on that he’ll figure more into the story. He ends up being the Big Bad, ultimately. It’s a minor quibble. The plot involves Bosch’s ex-wife (a former profiler who is now a pro gambler) and his teenage daughter, so the stakes are elevated. One of my favorite things about the series is the look of Los Angeles: it looks much more genuine than in anything else on film. Also, a lot of the locations are real and real cops came out to fill in the background in a shootout scene and a police funeral, for example. Titus Welliver (Lost) plays Bosch: he’s a guy who’ll do anything to get the job done, even if it’s off the books. Especially if it’s off the books. Lance Reddick (The Wire, Fringe) plays a Deputy Chief whose character I like a lot more in the series than in the books. Good stuff. Definitely binge-worthy.
I guess I should have known that I was straying into Twin Peaks territory when I cued up Mulholland Drive but I honestly didn’t expect the movie to be so weird. There’s something highly artificial about the way characters look in his movies. Take the couple Naomi Watts meets on her flight to L.A. How creepy do they look when they get into their car after they part company? Rictus grins on their faces. Justin Theroux is virtually unrecognizable as the movie director. My favorite scene, though is the one where Mark Pellegrino plays a hit man who totally botches the job, accidentally shooting someone through the wall and then having to try to clean up that mess, only to create worse messes. It’s pretty hilarious. Ultimately, though, I guess I don’t get the movie. Not in the sense of it being “one of the greatest films of all time” (according to the British Film Institute).
