Take Shelter: Critic Reviews

Writer-director Jeff Nichols builds his elegantly shot, weather-sensitive horror story in waves of tension that crest as if pulled by tempests.

It is a quiet, relentless exploration of the latent (and not so latent) terrors that bedevil contemporary American life, a horror movie that will trouble your sleep not with visions of monsters but with a more familiar dread.

The film's power should reside in this agonised human dilemma, but in the end it becomes a rather self-important shaggy dog story.

Taut, unsettling, haunting and powerful, "Take Shelter" stars Michael Shannon in a shattering performance as a man caught up in forces beyond his control.

The chilling genius of "Take Shelter'' isn't that the threat is never specified but that it doesn't need to be.

Despite a few missteps, Take Shelter powerfully lays bare our national anxiety disorder -- a pervasive dread that Curtis can define only as "something that's not right."

Nichols approaches his subject with thoughtful empathy, and while his themes are enormous - he's addressing no less than the state of our nation - he wisely underplays even the most important moments.

It's ultimately a bleak vision, and a circumscribed one, but remarkable all the same, and proof that Mr. Nichols is ready for much bigger things.

The movies have long been mad about the onset of madness.

A work of hushed and persuasive emotional veracity.

There's absolutely nothing affected about the film's perspective.

Nichols has a genius for making landscapes and everyday objects resonate like crazy, for nailing the texture of dread.

The movie makes you uncomfortable, but in a good way. Nichols has turned the current moment of American unease into a powerful metaphor.

Here is a frightening thriller based not on special effects gimmicks but on a dread that seems quietly spreading in the land: that the good days are ending, and climate changes or other sinister forces will sweep away our safety.

A molar-grinding performance from Michael Shannon anchors this slow but ultimately haunting drama.

A movie for this moment in time, this moment in our lives.

There's a strong, unsettling sense of disease that runs through Take Shelter, the best drama of the year so far.

Shannon is astounding, playing a good man pushed to the brink of sanity, maybe beyond. He portrays a sense of quiet desperation -- a feeling recognizable to many.

A hallucinatory thriller anchored by a deeply resonant sense of unease.

It would be possible to appreciate Shannon's fabulous work in "Take Shelter'' far better if the filmmaker lost a quarter of the two-hour running time -- there are many overlong scenes that make this a needlessly tough sit.

Shannon wonderfully modulates Nichols' portrait of a man whose mind and life seem to unravel before our eyes.

The really chilling thing is how believable it is.

The story of a man afflicted with fearful visions, Take Shelter is a film that's hitting the right apocalyptic trumpet call at the right time.

"Take Shelter" may be the most powerful American film I've seen this year.

A riveting genre blend of thriller, domestic drama and supernatural horror propelled by a brilliant lead performance.