Review of Take Shelter (2011) by James H — 23 May 2012

Where INCEPTION's mind-bending sci-fi is maximalist, TAKE SHELTER is eerily minimalist. In both of them, the mind bending is just as effective and beautiful.

TS's protagonist Curtis (M.Shannon) is haunted by constant nightmare visions of apocalypse -- angry thunder out of a clear sky, viscous rain, an all-around what-the-fuck mood, etc. As he tries to sort through these dreams?/visions?/feelings? (against the tide of family, job, and public opinion), a clear duel between irrationality and reality takes root; but Jeff Nichols steers his film away from condemning judgements and toward judging judgements, with Curtis's uncertainty allowed to breathe. It's no accident that "I'm thinking about cleaning up that storm shelter out back" comes right after some small talk about a missed church service: Curtis's experience isn't an individual, disposable issue that's foisted out on the universe; it's an essential, universal one that's brought in toward the individual.

His incredulous "Is anyone seeing this?" reprises might implicate him as just a lunatic in rural Ohio, but the lush and impressive pictures of what he's seeing, and the way the "?" is still alive, do as much to exonerate him as if there were actually something to see.