Take Shelter [DVD]

The jewel of my year so far in films.I wasn't sure what to expect after reading reviews and even if I would enjoy it or make it through the film, but I was wrong, so wrong. It is utterly spell binding and a emotional roller coaster with an edge of ' what is coming next '. The acting was fantastic, the filming and the story was excellent. It may not be a new film but its the best film I have sat down to watch in 2017 so far.

Way overrated, it's not a bad film but not a particularly good one either. Guy thinks he is going crazy , puts his dog out and builds a storm shelter. That about sums it up, It's dull, it drags, very little happens. Its been done better before anyway, so there isn't even a great artistic element to it. If anything is done well, it's the portrayal of mental health issues which does ring true to a degree.

Forget all the artsy fartsy reviews for this film. It's just a pass an afternoon movie. Nothing to write home about or recommend to anyone or they'll never listen to your recommendations again! The 3 stars are for the acting which was definitely worth acknowledgement. Outside of that it's a painfully slow disaster movie with no disaster! None! The best 2 scenes are when they have friends eating at the dinner table and the protagonist talks about building a shelter and secondly, when his wifes friend tells her that she's heard about the problems she's having with her husband - that's it. Watch it with absolutely no expectations and you may just enjoy it.

Can be taken as a straight horror film. But I believe the director is more interested in presenting a parable for life in Bush/Obama/ Trump America. Specifically, the lot of the blue collar family, struggling to get by, make sense, particularly in this case with a deaf daughter. The constant presseure and stress that the director and actors successfully portray. Brilliant.

American screenwriter and director Jeff Nichols second feature film which he wrote, premiered at the 27th Sundance Film Festival in 2011, was shot on location in Grafton, LaGrange and Elyria, Ohio in USA and is an American production which was produced by producers Tyler Davidson and Sophia Lin. It tells the story about 35-year-old Curtis LaForche who lives in a small town in Ohio with his wife Samantha and their adolescent daughter Hannah who is learning sign languages due to her inability to speak. The family is doing fine, but all of the sudden Curtis begins to experience apocalyptic visions and bad dreams. Knowing that his mother was diagnosed with Schizophrenia when he was ten years old, Curtis decides not to tell anyone about the things that are happening to him, but as the visions and dreams increases his personality changes and he becomes so convinced that something bad is going to happen where he lives that he begins to build a tornado shelter.Finely and engagingly directed by second-time American filmmaker Jeff Nichols, this finely paced fictional tale which is narrated mostly from the protagonist`s point of view, draws a gripping portrayal of an ordinary man who is so certain that his town is going to be struck by a disaster that he becomes detached from his family. While notable for its naturalistic milieu depictions, fine cinematography by cinematographer Adam Stone and efficient use of sound, this character-driven, humane, atmospheric and foreboding mystery depicts an incisive study of character and a compassionate love-story.This invariably intriguing and cogently narrated psychological drama about a man`s unsettling premonitions and the way they affect his personality and his relations with other people, is impelled and reinforced by its commendable and involving acting performances by American actor Michael Shannon, American actress Jessica Chastain and the fine supporting acting performances by American actor Shia Whigham and Tova Stewart in her debut feature film role. A compelling and mindful independent film which gained, among numerous other awards, the International Critics` Week Grand Prix, the Prix SACD and the FIPRESCI Prize in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 64th Cannes Film Festival in 2011.

Criminally underrated and uner-reviewed film that broods its way into the existential questions and turmoils we rarely speak of but have found ourselves facing together as a world in 2020.Few tales are more riveting than a person's descent into madness. The cinematography is exceptional, the film is character driven, poignant and could not be more relevant today, a decade on from when it was first aired.And they said all the doomsday preppers were mad.....until this year, and we still walk blindly into the future even though that future teeters on a fraying planet...

The acting was superb, from the two adult leads, and the really well directed child actress who played the deaf daughter. As a previous reviewer said, there are times when she completely stole the show, without saying a single word. The husband and wife relationship was also beautifully drawn out, and some moments were so real that it was painful to watch. The moment, for example, when he goes in to see his counsellor, and it's an abrupt man who rubs him up the wrong way immediately... our hero turns and walks out, and you can really see why! The way his friends start to ask how he is, then gradually withdraw from him. His boss sacking him... in what I consider to be a completely unfair way, because he must know the man's ill, and removing his (and his daughter's) access to medical help is utterly immoral. An employer should work with his employees, and try to find a solution before withdrawing the safety net completely like that.Very realistic feeling, in so many ways.I won't reveal the ending, but will say that it ruined the film for me. Others enjoyed it, so it's a matter of taste.Other than that, it's a very good examination of schizophrenia from the inside.