Joe Clement and Frann Michel review the apocalyptic psycho-thriller Take Shelter, staring Michael Shannon as a blue-collared man in rural Ohio who becomes deeply disturbed by terrifying dreams involving mega-storms, attacks by dogs and neighbors, and even faceless intruders kidnapping his deaf daughter. When he begins building-out a storm-shelter in his backyard without consulting his wife, played by Jessica Chastain, he alienates her and ultimately his community. All the while he struggles with the possibility that he has his mother's schizophrenia and yet is certain that "a storm is coming".
Joe and Frann talk about the film as a response to economic and ecological distress, as departing from a tradition of apocalyptic films that underscore community rather than individual survival, and as showing a number of other anxieties around masculinity, the nuclear family and even sanity. Though the twist ending isn't explicitly revealed, the review was not attempting to avoid spoilers.
- KBOO