Netflix: Better luck next time
Picker: Mark "have you ever taken a piss and realized you were shitting the whole time" B.
Dylan: So this director really likes to make me think of Eastbound and Down.
Mark: Haha true. Shotgun Stories has a character who looks eerily like Kenny Powers and this time we actually have an actress from Eastbound and Down. I guess I need to see Mud now to see where he goes from here.
Dylan: Hopefully it will involve either Stevie or Clegg. But anyways, having just seen Shotgun Stories -- same director and lead actor -- it was impossible not to compare the two. For one thing, there was a clearly much larger budget. The setting is, for the most part, the same; instead of the South we get rural Ohio. A lower-middle class family (and that's being generous) is doing what they have to to get by. And there are some surprisingly effective special effects that play into the story very well.
What I found most interesting was how the tension grew and grew, slow but steady, over the course of the film. We follow the main character, Curtis, played by Michael Shannon, who seems to be losing his mind, having weird dreams and hallucinations that start to affect his everyday life. He has a loving and supportive wife, and a special needs daughter, and all he wants to do is protect them, even from himself.
Also, I intend to have a spoilerific talk about the ending later. So prepare yourself for that.
Mark: I agree, what with kinda getting the need to compare and contrast the films. And I think the thing I like the most is that even with a bigger budget, Jeff Nichols doesn’t at all seem to lose what made Shotgun Stories so enjoyable; it's a character-driven and tension-filled experience. Take Shelter does a brilliant job building and building over the course of the movie, blending truth and fiction throughout. Are these just dreams or visions? Is it real or just the onset of paranoid schizophrenia? And what makes it worse is that his mother suffers from this and it first affected her in her thirties, and he’s in his thirties. All this helps to drive this unknowing fear throughout.
Dylan: I guess what it comes down to is you, as the viewer, wondering is he really crazy? Is it all just harmless? Is this a horror movie (because at times it gets pretty scary. Even the imagery is reminiscent of other -- usually crappy -- horror movies. Like all of the birds flying around and falling out of the sky)? What the fuck is going to happen? But what I really like is that it is so grounded in reality. This husband and father begins to suspect that he is going crazy, he sees doctors/counselors, his need to build a storm shelter takes a toll on his job, which in turn affects his family. It's a linear story but it does a great job exploring the complexities of even a simple life. In a way, the day-to-day stress of real life is more terrifying than his descent into insanity.
Mark: But what makes you unnerved throughout is that while Curtis thinks he might be going crazy, and we as the viewers feel it as well, he also goes about building the new storm shelter. And he’s doing so because of the dreams. So we are left really wondering where he’s at mentally. He sees doctors about the dreams, but he still acts as though what he’s seen is real. And since it’s played so well by Shannon, we really get drawn into this man as we watch his life begin to spiral out of his control. And what also makes this great is Shannon is backed up by great performances by the rest of the cast. Jessica Chastain plays both the concern and fear in Curtis’ wife really well; afraid for what might be happening, but not ever wanting to let him go into this alone. They play off each other and bring the whole movie to a deeper, more complex human level.
Dylan: See, now, I thought Chastain was the weak point. Maybe it’s due to my personal dislike for the actress (see our Coriolanus review) but it seemed like several of her lines were contrived and cliche, and used deliberately to move the plot. There was something phony about the words, or perhaps her delivery, which, up against Shannon's fantastic Curtis, sort of detracted from that realism that everything else about the movie build up so well.
Mark: I disagree. I felt as though her lines added weight to the moment. And I felt she did very well throughout, especially during the scene in the storm shelter. Her performance, with Shannon’s, albeit much better, performance, and the really great score, made for a really emotionally charged scene. The moments when the tension boils over, it’s some amazing stuff.
Dylan: The scene at the Lion’s club dinner was spectacularly done, in my opinion. I was shocked to see the altercation take place between Shannon and Shea Whigham (the guy who plays Eli Thompson on Boardwalk Empire). And of course I'm wondering the whole time "is his wife, realizing that he's nuts, just going to leave? Is she going to side with him or everyone else? Is anyone else going to step in?"
Mark: Yeah, it’s that moment when you question him completely, because he’s finally let go and shown us that he does believe the delusions. Or maybe he’s just playing into the rumors that he’s crazy. And we’re back to where we started. But since we’re having a little spoilerific talk later on in this, I found an interesting bit of trivia about this scene. Everyone eating who isn't the lead characters, were extras who thought they were getting free lunch while waiting to learn what they’ll be doing in the movie. They had no idea that the fight was gonna happen or that Shannon was gonna just verbally explode like that.
Dylan: Wow, that’s really cool. So all of their reactions were completely natural. Making it all the more interesting that no one stepped in or stood up or anything. They were just...hungry extras I guess.
Mark: Yeah, just as lost as any normal person would be in that situation. Afraid but interested in what he had to say. Really, that’s kinda what this whole movie was, watching in fear of what this man is gonna do next, but way too interested to stop or look away. This is the type of movie I love, where it’s a slow burner of a film, relying on the strength of the actors to bring forth the tension, dread, and fear, coupled with great directing that brings you into the scenes and setting. The special effects, what little there is, acts as icing on the cake. And I also really liked the music; thought it was unsettling but it fit the mood and scenes great.
Dylan: I agree with all of that...pending the spoiler talk. Are you ready for that?
Mark: Sure. Go!
SPOILERS. STOP NOW UNLESS YOU WANT TO KNOW THE ENDING AND STUFF
Dylan: So I found the ending pretty disappointing. I understand the urge to leave us hanging and all that, but two things bothered me. The first was that we are expected to believe he can somehow control his paranoid schizophrenia just by...fighting against it. He has clearly lost his mind, and his wife just says (and I'm summarizing) ‘no, it’s fine. There’s no storm. If you go out there, we can be a family.’ And he goes out and faces his fear and all is well. (Okay, so they do still go to a psychiatrist and he needs more attention. But that built up tension is way too easily dispelled.) You don’t just stare down schizophrenia; that’s not how it works. And after this very realistic deterioration of a man’s psyche, that just seemed like a really shallow climax.
And then you get the very end, where...what happened? His visions came true? It really is the storm of all storms, the end of the world? So he doesn’t even have schizophrenia? He’s a prophet? Now the movie is no longer realistic, it's a sci-fi/horror or something. And even if I say 'okay', and accept it, they’re in fucking Myrtle Beach. He and wife look at the storm and then each other with a look of understanding and love. And it's like 'okay, fine, I guess it's a good thing he's prepared. Except, oh wait, they're in Myrtle Beach, hundreds of miles from his decked-out storm shelter. So...they're doomed. What the fuck? The story of his daughter is cut short. Anything interesting with his mother, or his brother, or the parts of his dreams and visions that didn't involve the storm are completely tossed aside and unresolved.
Mark: Ok, here’s my take. When he comes out of the shelter to see that he was wrong, this time, I took it as his first step toward realizing that the visions aren't real. That he does, in fact, have schizophrenia, but with the help of his family, he can get medical attention.
Dylan: Right, and that’s the other scene in which Chastain bothers me. She insisted that he open the door and used the power of love to convince him to do it. I mean, his illness could have been much worse than that. The dreams were telling him that even his wife was a threat to him. He could’ve like...done a million other things. Instead, he opens the doors and takes in the fresh air. Again I say it was very cliche.
Mark: In a way, yes, but I thought it was done very well. The tension remained high throughout that scene and I never felt it was lost, even when she basically argued that if he couldn’t come to grips with it then he’d lose them. She was fighting his growing irrational fear with his real fear of losing them. It created so much more conflict within Curtis, but he could see one fear that was more painful than the other. It’s a dark move to take, but I liked how it was done.
Now, on the ending ending. One thing is that I liked that it was out of nowhere. We get, for all intents and purposes, an ending. He commits to helping himself and they take a trip to begin that healing.
Dylan: Also...Myrtle Beach...that’s another Eastbound and Down shoutout. Go on...
Mark: And Curtis’ brother was the Preacher from the first season of Deadwood. Just to throw out another HBO thing.
But then he’s right. Clearly Samantha sees the clouds and feels the rain. And all I feel in the end is that they just run. To where, we don’t know. Just together they run from this.
Dylan: Meh. It just didn’t follow the realism of the narrative up until that point. Maybe it was actually a dream. In fact, I prefer to think of it the final dream, indicating that he has finally lost it completely, sleeping in some assisted living home somewhere. It’s dark, but would go better with the rest of the story I think. And I prefer the ambiguity of that.
Mark: Well the director did talk about the ending and specifically said that he made it be ambiguous. He likes that people see different things, some as reality, and others as a dream. I like to think Samantha finally understands what’s been plaguing her husband, but in the end it doesn’t matter, cause they’re together. Maybe it’s a mushy way to look at it, but it fits with the arc of their relationship throughout the movie. But that’s how I see it.
END SPOILERS. RESUME READING HERE. ALL IS GOOD. YES. INDEED SO.
Dylan: Have you seen the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man? It has, quite possibly, one of the most ambiguous movie endings ever. And, ironically, it also involves tornadoes. AND it stars another character from Boardwalk Empire, Arnold Rothstein. Oh man, I am on a roll!
Mark: I haven’t. Maybe we’ll throw that on the list of movies to review. So clearly our new thing is to do movies with ties/actors from HBO shows. In summary, everybody should see this movie. That’s where I’ll leave it.
Dylan: I agree. It’s very good. A lot more suspenseful than Shotgun Stories. The only downside, in my opinion, is that it gets a little weird towards the end. But it’s still worth a watch.
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Big doings the next couple days. Hopefully very soon we will be watching the 80's classic Legend, a Ridley Scott movie with Tim Curry and Tom Cruise. I'll pause for a minute while you process all three of those names being in the same sentence.
...All good? I guess it's a cult classic of sorts, along the lines of The NeverEnding Story; I had never heard of it, but other people seem to have been raised on it. And did I mention that Tim Curry is it in? That should seal the deal for you right there. Anyways, Legend is going to be a special review, maybe, hopefully. But shortly after that we'll get back to turning out our usual schlock, starting with Cloud Atlas.
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