Take Shelter (2011)

Michael Shannon is no stranger to expertly playing haunted/tortured outsiders as evident in “My Son, My Son” and “Revolutionary Road.” In the taunt, purposefully slow-paced drama “Take Shelter,” he plays an Average Joe in Ohio named Curtis who works in aggregates, loves his wife (Jessica Chastain, great as always) and dotes on his deaf daughter. All is apple-pie normal until Curtis begins having profoundly disturbing nightmares and visions of violent storms with doom-laden clouds and thick and brownish-yellow rainwater. The dreams/visions grow more intense and Curtis fears schizophrenia, with good reason. His mother was struck with the disorder in her mid-30s. Director and writer Jeff Nichols’ film is a stunner, from the minute details of daily life to the way small towns blanket fear over a person to fit in and be quiet, go to church or else. “Shelter” nails two closing high marks -– Curtis’ meltdown at a public dinner and a tornado alert -– before a devastating two-punch finale, one inevitably sad, the latter forcing the viewer to question all that has happened. Tall and gangly, Shannon’s raging performance here is frightening and fragile. A

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2010)

Indie film god Werner Herzog directed “My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done,” a fictional take on a real San Diego man who slew his mother with a sword because God told him to, or so he thought. But David Lynch’s vibe is wholly present. He produced this low budget, quiet psychological horror film. There’s an unreal dream quality to the drama, an off-time click to the speaking roles, and yet the setting and actions strive to be realistic. When the killer (Michael Shannon of “Revolutionary Road”) apparently takes hostages, a SWAT team is called. These men are professional and calm, as they are in such cases. (As a reporter I went to a dozen or more hostage situations, I never saw Hollywood gung-ho theatrics.) More so, there is no violence. The death of the mother (Grace Zabriskie of “Twin Peaks”) is off screen. “My Son” focuses on cause and effect, and psychology, and character. Not gore. What a fine treat. Shannon again nails a man bent beyond madness, with no way to see right anymore. B+