"Take Shelter (2011) dir. Jeff Nichols

Hey, remember in "Twister" when Helen Hunt's dad gets sucked out of a storm shelter by a massive tornado? Yeah, nothing like happens in this movie. Sorry if I got your hopes up.

I can recall few films that convey impending doom and dread better than this one. What would you do if you started having vivid nightmares of an oncoming freakish storm with tons of tornados and motor oil raining from the sky and getting attacked by crazy people? Ignore it? Kill yourself? Build a large underground shelter in your backyard while refusing to explain yourself to anyone? The awesome Michael Shannon plays a family man named Curtis in "Take Shelter" and he chooses option C.

With a cast made up almost entirely of people who have played supporting roles in various HBO series, "Take Shelter" sets its narrow focus on Curtis's family and few friends who live in rural Ohio. It has the pacing of a slow-burn horror movie with each of Curtis's nightmares becoming more terrible and visceral than the last. It reminded me of the sort of psychological horror movies where the main character isn't sure of what's real and what's in his or her head, but it's definitely not a horror movie in most regards. It's a film about both mental illness and the possible end of the world and one man trying to discern the two. It's a thriller, I suppose, but it has its own stately grace and it's filmed very calmly. Nothing is rushed, yet it doesn't feel slow. It held my attention completely for its 2 hour run time.

There is a scene near the end where the family does end up in the storm shelter and Curtis's wife, played by the lovely and ubiquitous-in-2011 Jessica Chastain, wants him to open the shelter doors because she says the storm is over. The scene builds such an incredibly tense and paranoid vibe. My heart was beating out of my god damn chest.

The soundtrack by David Wingo is fantastic, using lots of tonal layers and sharp sounding feedback noises to build upon the film's dark, atmospheric qualities. And, in case you were wondering (and you probably weren't) the director is the brother of Ben Nichols, singer of Lucero. He contributes a nice solo song for the end credits in his own tried and true, sad bastard alt-country kinda way. It's pretty fitting.

This movie had a decent amount critical hype it seemed, but flew under the radar in general last year. It's a damn shame, because it deserves a lot more credit for being a incredibly tasteful and deeply resonating film about the end of the world, especially in comparison to most apocalyptic films of the last couple years. This is mostly due to the film's narrow focus and on the strength of the Shannon and Chastain's performances. Never a false note between them. But it's cool, let's keep giving Oscar nominations to wank-fests like "The Artist" and "Hugo."

Enough gushing, obviously I loved this movie and I highly recommend it all fans of total downer cinema.