Posts Tagged ‘anxiety as a signal’

Short Take: Emotionally taxing and anxiety-inducing, but clearly one of this year’s best films

Director: Jeff Nichols

Screenwriter: Jeff Nichols

Cast: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain

Length: 2h

Synopsis: Curtis (Shannon) is a husband, father, and construction worker whose main concern is providing for his family. Recently, however, he’s been experiencing vivid nightmares involving terrible storms that compel him to expensively modify the storm shelter behind his rural home. With his worries seemingly unfounded, his efforts cause his wife (Chastain), friends, and community to suspect that he’s succumbing to psychosis just like his mother did when he was young. The project takes a financial and emotional toll that threatens his marriage and way of life, but he just can’t shake the feeling that another kind of catastrophe lies just over the horizon. He tries desperately to seek help, but finds that the only way to ease his anxiety is to finish creating that which is meant to protect what he’s so close to losing. What happens after it’s finished, however, will end up challenging him the most.

Read the rest of this entry »