Oscar Contenders #2: End Times Are Coming

Review: Take Shelter + Beginners

I'll wager that Take Shelter will be swept under the rug in the tidal wave of major winter releases. Michael Shannon is a risky gamble; Jessica Chastain looks familiar to fans of The Help, but not enough to sell tickets. Cards on the table: I'm going to back it for a Best Picture nomination that it will not receive. Director Jeff Nichols provokes an astonishing intensity as he follows a man who readies his home for a terrifying storm. To his wife and daughter, it's the occasional Midwestern tornado; but for Curtis, the end of days approaches.

This twister is not the sort that Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton once chased; it comes from within. Curtis, paralyzed by visions that storms are brewing, obsesses with building a high-tech underground shelter, so much that he (and his family) start questioning his state of mind. He assembles his hideaway like a prophet called by a higher power. Nichols stays away from disaster-movie cliches in his script and direction; the suspense builds up slowly, eerily, like a horror flick without of the ghosts that jump out. The final scene to me pushes the film away from its heightened realism to more overt symbolism (i.e. more esoteric), though it doesn't really spoil the fun.

We aren't privy to what makes Curtis tick; and Shannon reads like he isn't even sure himself. It's a wonderful performance, and it wouldn't work in most actors' hands. Michael Shannon certainly plays crazy men often, but beneath the bug eyes and uneasy smile, he grounds his modern-day Noah in human uncertainty. With his hulking form and gruff mumbles, he's vulnerable and still intimidating. Supporting him is Jessica Chastain as his wife Samantha, protecting their daughter Hannah as dad sinks further into madness. Though it could be enlightenment.

Meanwhile, in Beginners out on DVD, Ewan McGregor deals with a more traditional family loss. His father Hal (Christopher Plummer) has recently passed away, and in flashback, we witness him as a widow who finally comes out as a gay man. His son Oliver (McGregor) questions his younger boyfriend, who has other lovers, but as Hal says, "You always dreamed of getting a lion. And you wait... but the lion doesn't come. And along comes a giraffe. You can be alone, or you can be with the giraffe."

At this early date, Plummer might have a chance at Best Supporting Actor. Though it's a sentimental vote, it's also a reassuring one. He gives the film its spark of life. Plummer's had a long run on stage and screen, and he keeps things honest as a man free to start a new chapter, no regrets. To see him smile offers the deepest glimpse into Mike Mills' directorial debut. Mills writes and directs, just as Jeff Nichols did with Take Shelter, this sweet if lightweight affair. After the unshakeable tensions of Nichols' film, Beginners may help you move past your worries about mortality.