What makes Nichols' film so satisfying, at least until the melodrama of the final act, is the deftness of the characterisations and the constant sense that things are probably considerably more complex than they're perceived.

| Aug 29, 2017

In my estimate, this unique and frequently arresting film suffers from the monotony of the lead players' affect, and from the film's urge to have its gloomy cake and eat it.

| Jun 20, 2013

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

| Jan 4, 2012

An impressively sustained slow-burn parable from writer-director Jeff Nichols, shot with ominous beauty, guarding its mysteries with care.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 25, 2011

Like a laissez-passer to our apocalypse sensors.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 25, 2011

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

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 25, 2011

As in Todd Haynes's 1995 masterpiece, Safe, we are in a world that can't be pinned down.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 25, 2011

The supernatural horror/suburban drama mash-up doesn't always sit well, but there's no need to take shelter from the Shannon/Nichols partnership.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 24, 2011

When future film historians look back at the cultural fallout from America's financial collapse, 'Take Shelter' will be a key text. That is, if the storm doesn't sweep us all away.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 22, 2011

Terrific. Michael Shannon delivers a fractured everyman who'll stay with you long after the final frame.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 20, 2011

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

| Original Score: A+ | Oct 28, 2011

Take Shelter is a deeply unsettling movie.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 28, 2011

In an era of empty entertainments, "Take Shelter" is built to last.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 28, 2011

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.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Oct 27, 2011

A work of hushed and persuasive emotional veracity.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 21, 2011

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

| Original Score: A- | Oct 21, 2011

It's so stunningly effective at establishing a sense of dread that it's almost impossible to recommend it without reservations.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 20, 2011

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

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 20, 2011

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

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 20, 2011

A compelling character-driven piece that offers a beguiling, unsettling inside view of a troubled mind.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 18, 2011