Take Shelter Reviews

Playing like the excruciatingly long first act of a better movie, Take Shelter long overstays its welcome while confusing narrative indolence for tension.

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Could also have lost half an hour yet still maintained the momentum towards a powerful climax...

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

The film doesn't work so well for me, although I recognise some of its strengths.

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Like a laissez-passer to our apocalypse sensors.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

When its last, proudly ambiguous note is struck, one leaves convinced only that there exists a greater exploitation of this same concept yet to be made, one with sharper contrasts and more starkly defined stakes.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

It's a film without suspense and with a slow-moving story that unfolds without surprise or embellishment.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Wavers between the terrifying stasis of The Birds and the bogus theatrics of The Happening.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Out of his 'Tree of Life'

Full Review | Original Score: C minus

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

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Nichols has nothing positive to say, and spends more than two hours saying it. It's a superficial movie pretending to be deep.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

I could watch Michael Shannon stare at a wall for 90 minutes and still be captivated.

Full Review | Original Score: A+

While Take Shelter isn't by any means perfect - writer/director Jeff Nichols could use a refresher course on editing - it's a powerful film, displaying a devolvement into insanity that ultimately proves to be quite visionary.

Full Review | Original Score: B+

Full Review | Original Score: A

While Take Shelter is a marvellously composed film, it is also one that holds you at a distance

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

A sensitively constructed, if somewhat protracted metaphor for mental health and its frightening onset that remains with you long after viewing.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

The role of Curtis in this film is a perfect fit for Shannon's intense and slightly unhinged screen persona.

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Those who've never understood [anxiety] could do to see Take Shelter as a total immersion virtual reality experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

Shannon gives one of the best performances of the year, in a film that manages both white-knuckle intensity and tender drama. Watch it as a double feature with Roman Polanski's Repulsion.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

There's something about Michael Shannon's looming height and malleable features that makes him a natural fit for playing tortured souls.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5