Take Shelter
Crit
When I saw the trailer for this, I thought it looked too M. Night Shyamalan for my tastes, and in fact it is very M. Night--if M. Night grew up smarter and more sophisticated. It has the same sort of supernatural-or-not metaphysical concerns that Shyamalan's films have, but without the "whoops--didn't see that coming" that cheapens his lesser efforts.Instead, writer-director Jeff Nichols (who??? Jeff Nichols of Shotgun Stories? Jeff Nichols who's not yet 33 years old? right) seems set here on nothing less than plumbing the Old Testament question: how do you really know when you're a prophet? How do you know you're not just the loony your friends and neighbors take you for? And maybe even more important: how does your family know? Can your family know?
'Cause let's face it: you make a big deal of prophesying really bad shit, and there's 2 ways it can go down: (1) you can be wrong, in which case you are indeed just a nutball, which actually simplifies matters for everyone, including you. But what if (2) you're right? Well then, the reward you get for your legitimate prophet status is . . . really bad shit happens, and then you, as much as all the people who didn't listen to you because obviously you were just a loony, have to deal with it.
The genius of this film is that because Michael Shannon invests with such conviction his character's horrible dreams of 10w40 rainstorms and zombies--and Jessica Chastain (in the best of her 25 or so performances this year--where the hell has she been hiding?) so invests her character with love and terror and protection of their deaf daughter--that we're actually rooting for the really bad shit rather than the simple craziness. And how fucked up is that?
The front-runner in the "I-was-never-comfortable" sweepstakes for 2011. And I mean that it a good way.
Trailer
- Pina--I always have to preface every praise of a dance film with a disclaimer that I don't really care much for dance films; this one looks so trippy I won't even bother.
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