Take Shelter review: No disaster movie can be as depressing as this

By Chris Tookey

Last updated at 8:39 AM on 25th November 2011

Take Shelter (15)

Verdict: Run Away

Rating:

A hysterical over-reaction to climate change or possibly a despairing response to the current economic crisis, Take Shelter is the story of a latterday Noah trying to warn mankind of imminent catastrophe.

Or it could be a study of  a paranoid schizophrenic falling apart. It’s up to the audience to choose, up until the final shot.

Hysterical overreaction: Michael Shannon and Tova Stewart in climate change disaster movie Take Shelter

Michael Shannon (above) does an eye-catching job of impersonating a present-day Cassandra, even if he does bear an unfortunate physical resemblance to Herman Munster.

His big scenes must give him an outside chance of an Oscar nomination as Best Actor. Jessica Chastain is nearly as impressive as his anxious,  but supportive wife.

However, writer-director Jeff Nichols has nothing positive to say, and spends more than two hours saying it. It’s a superficial movie pretending to be deep.

Taking Shelter would make a daunting double-bill with Lars von Trier’s end-of-the-world melodrama Melancholia, even for depressives. Miserable, slow and over-long, it’s not a barrel of laughs for anyone else.

Resistance review: 'What if' Nazi movie that is entirely resistible

By Chris Tookey

Last updated at 8:41 AM on 25th November 2011

Resistance (PG)

Verdict: Resistible

Rating:

There have been several ‘what if’ movies about what Britain might have been like had the Nazis occupied us. This is one of the worst.

It’s a sluggish love story about a Welsh farmer’s wife (an underpowered Andrea Riseborough) who discovers in 1944 that her husband has left, presumably to join the anti-Nazi resistance along with most other men of the valley, leaving the women to cope with a German patrol under the leadership of a polite, English-speaking captain (Tom Wlaschiha).

Sluggish love story: A farmer's wife discovers that her husband has left, presumably to join the anti-Nazi resistance

Bit part: The trailer implies Michael Sheen has a starring role in the film, but he makes a cameo appearance

The only star name, Michael Sheen, has a cameo role, though — naughtily — the trailer implies he’s a lead.

Amit Gupta’s flaccid direction leaves plenty of pauses to be filled by actors gazing opaquely into space.

The script, by Gupta and Owen Sheers, based on the latter’s novel, leaves so much unspoken it never begins to work as a cross-cultural love story or tackles its theme of how far collaboration can ever be justified.

All in all, it’s too minor and dull to be worth screening in a cinema.

Too much left unspoken: The film is too minor and to dull to be worth screening in a cinema

50/50 review: Diagnosis is surprisingly uplifting for cancer movie

By Chris Tookey

Last updated at 9:53 AM on 25th November 2011

50/50 (15)

Verdict: Uplifting cancer movie

Rating:

50/50 is a surprisingly uplifting romantic comedy about a likeable young radio journalist (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who discovers he has cancer — an affliction that changes his relationships with his self-absorbed girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard), overbearing mother (Anjelica Huston) and oafish best buddy (Seth Rogen).

The diagnosis also brings him into contact with a cute if inexperienced doctor (Anna Kendrick). She wants to help him psychologically, and in other ways, too.

Life-affirming: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bryce Dallas Howard in 50/50

Levitt and Kendrick are subtle, sweet and intelligent enough to compensate for the faint misogyny of the script and the crassness of Rogen’s contribution, which is blatantly an attempt to play to opening-weekend teenagers.

Will Reiser’s semi-autobiographical script leans over backwards and in every other direction to find the positive aspects of cancer, and discovers a few truths that offset the usual cliches of cancer weepies.

It’s no masterpiece, and Jonathan Levine’s direction has the flatness of TV. All the same, it’s cute, even for people who are well; and to those unfortunate enough to have a potentially terminal illness, it could be inspirational.

50/50 review: Diagnosis is surprisingly uplifting for cancer movie

By Chris Tookey

Last updated at 9:53 AM on 25th November 2011

50/50 (15)

Verdict: Uplifting cancer movie

Rating:

50/50 is a surprisingly uplifting romantic comedy about a likeable young radio journalist (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who discovers he has cancer — an affliction that changes his relationships with his self-absorbed girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard), overbearing mother (Anjelica Huston) and oafish best buddy (Seth Rogen).

The diagnosis also brings him into contact with a cute if inexperienced doctor (Anna Kendrick). She wants to help him psychologically, and in other ways, too.

Life-affirming: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bryce Dallas Howard in 50/50

Levitt and Kendrick are subtle, sweet and intelligent enough to compensate for the faint misogyny of the script and the crassness of Rogen’s contribution, which is blatantly an attempt to play to opening-weekend teenagers.

Will Reiser’s semi-autobiographical script leans over backwards and in every other direction to find the positive aspects of cancer, and discovers a few truths that offset the usual cliches of cancer weepies.

It’s no masterpiece, and Jonathan Levine’s direction has the flatness of TV. All the same, it’s cute, even for people who are well; and to those unfortunate enough to have a potentially terminal illness, it could be inspirational.

Resistance review: 'What if' Nazi movie that is entirely resistible

By Chris Tookey

Last updated at 8:41 AM on 25th November 2011

Resistance (PG)

Verdict: Resistible

Rating:

There have been several ‘what if’ movies about what Britain might have been like had the Nazis occupied us. This is one of the worst.

It’s a sluggish love story about a Welsh farmer’s wife (an underpowered Andrea Riseborough) who discovers in 1944 that her husband has left, presumably to join the anti-Nazi resistance along with most other men of the valley, leaving the women to cope with a German patrol under the leadership of a polite, English-speaking captain (Tom Wlaschiha).

Sluggish love story: A farmer's wife discovers that her husband has left, presumably to join the anti-Nazi resistance

Bit part: The trailer implies Michael Sheen has a starring role in the film, but he makes a cameo appearance

The only star name, Michael Sheen, has a cameo role, though — naughtily — the trailer implies he’s a lead.

Amit Gupta’s flaccid direction leaves plenty of pauses to be filled by actors gazing opaquely into space.

The script, by Gupta and Owen Sheers, based on the latter’s novel, leaves so much unspoken it never begins to work as a cross-cultural love story or tackles its theme of how far collaboration can ever be justified.

All in all, it’s too minor and dull to be worth screening in a cinema.

Too much left unspoken: The film is too minor and to dull to be worth screening in a cinema

Take Shelter review: No disaster movie can be as depressing as this

By Chris Tookey

Last updated at 8:39 AM on 25th November 2011

Take Shelter (15)

Verdict: Run Away

Rating:

A hysterical over-reaction to climate change or possibly a despairing response to the current economic crisis, Take Shelter is the story of a latterday Noah trying to warn mankind of imminent catastrophe.

Or it could be a study of  a paranoid schizophrenic falling apart. It’s up to the audience to choose, up until the final shot.

Hysterical overreaction: Michael Shannon and Tova Stewart in climate change disaster movie Take Shelter

Michael Shannon (above) does an eye-catching job of impersonating a present-day Cassandra, even if he does bear an unfortunate physical resemblance to Herman Munster.

His big scenes must give him an outside chance of an Oscar nomination as Best Actor. Jessica Chastain is nearly as impressive as his anxious,  but supportive wife.

However, writer-director Jeff Nichols has nothing positive to say, and spends more than two hours saying it. It’s a superficial movie pretending to be deep.

Taking Shelter would make a daunting double-bill with Lars von Trier’s end-of-the-world melodrama Melancholia, even for depressives. Miserable, slow and over-long, it’s not a barrel of laughs for anyone else.