6) 10 Cloverfield Lane (dir. Dan Trachtenberg)
No cameo by the Cloverfield monster? No problem. John Goodman takes over the villainous arc of 10 Cloverfield Lane, even though his status of a “villain” is highly suspect. Dan Trachtenberg’s bunker spinoff tells of a woman who might or might not be a conspiracy theorist’s prisoner, after her car was overturned before some kind of disaster. Goodman’s character finds the girl, brings her into his bomb shelter and swears he saved her life by doing so – it’s a brooding, militant performance by Goodman that’s Oscar worthy in my opinion.
Winstead herself delivers one of the top genre performances as Goodman’s guest/victim, in line with Zoe Kazan (The Monster) and Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch). She’s cunning, resourceful and independently strong, posing a real, believable threat to Goodman’s domineering host. It’s been a badass year for female characters throughout the genre, but Winstead is up there with most badass-iest – if not standing atop, looking down at the competition. There might have been more questions posed in the Cloverfield universe than answered, but the performances end up being too damn good to ignore.