Mulling over the many layers and events of Destin Daniel Cretton’s film adaptation of Jeanette Wells’ memoirs The Glass Castle, I keep coming back to the same essential question: "Who am I to judge someone else's life story or life choices?" If the real Jeanette Wells is able to make peace with the events of her childhood, how can I, or anyone, tell her she's wrong? The answer is we can’t (and shouldn’t) and that’s a hurdle not everyone has shown to be prepared for or able to separate from critique.

MOVIE REVIEW: Free Fire

I don't know about you, but I get a kick out of bad gunshot wound acting in all ages of films. It’s either hilariously drawn out with overacting or it’s unrealistically rapid in fatality. The brutal facts of getting shot enough to cause death rarely check out in the movies. That never stops filmmakers from trying new and creative ways to shoot people with varying degrees of entertainment success. “Free Fire” is one such film daring to blast anything and everything with ammunition encased with twisted zeal.

MOVIE REVIEW: Kong: Skull Island

“Kong: Skull Island” taps into the same definition of “spectacle” that applies to “Jurassic World” nearly two years ago. This ain’t your old “King Kong.” This is “go big or go home.” If you’re looking for the version steeped in awe and wonder, go watch the 1933 original. To expand the original’s wonderment with the best of today’s special effects, go watch Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake. If you want a rip-roaring roller coaster with no strings, rules, or heavy gravitas attached, you’ve come to the right place in 2017.

COLUMN: Predicting the major 88th Academy Award nominations

The 88th Academy Award nominations will be announced tomorrow morning, January 14, 2016, hot off of the weekend's 73rd Golden Globe awards. I've been following the full awards season over on my Awards Tracker page. Using that data as the tea leaves and a truckload of hunches, I'm going to attempt to closely predict the Oscar nominations for the "Big 8" categories for the third year in a row.

2015, 2016, Column, Editorial, SPECIALDon ShanahanJanuary 13, 2016Best Picture, The race for Best Picture, Oscar Predictions, Oscar nominations, Oscar contenders, Oscar hopefuls, Oscar bait, 88th Academy Awards, 88th Oscars, Oscars, 2016, 2015, Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actor, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, Big 8, Oscar snubs, Oscar surprises, Spotlight, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, The Big Short, Carol, Room, Brooklyn, The Martian, Bridge of Spies, Creed, Inside Out, Son of Saul, Straight Outta Compton, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, George Miller, Tom McCarthy, Todd Haynes, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Ridley Scott, Adam McKay, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Ryan Coogler, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs, Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl, Matt Damon, Bryan Cranston, Trumbo, Johnny Depp, Black Mass, Michael B. Jordan, Michael Keaton, Brie Larson, Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years, Jennifer Lawrence, Joy, Charlize Theron, Sarah Silverman, I Smile Back, Helen Mirren, Emily Blunt, Sicario, Sylvester Stallone, Mark Rylance, Michael Shannon, 99 Homes, Paul Dano, Love and Mercy, Jacob Tremblay, Benecio del Toro, Mark Ruffalo, Steve Carell, Christian Bale, Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation, Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina, Alex Garland, Rooney Mara, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria, Rachel McAdams, Josh Singer, Pete Docter, Meg LaFauvre, Josh Cooley, Oren Movermann, Michael Alan Lerner, Matt Charman, Ethan Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen, Joel CoenComment

COLUMN: Who should win/will win the 2016 Golden Globes?

More and more each year, the Golden Globes have become more an a popularity contest than a true precursor to the Academy Awards. What you're watching on TV is a party thrown by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and hosted by Ricky Gervais in an effort to be loved and share some love. To its credit, the awards show still garners legitimate attention and ratings. The winners do get a pretty positive rub and the marketers gain a few more "Winner of..." graphics to put in the newspapers next to their films.

2015, 2016, Editorial, Column, SPECIALDon ShanahanJanuary 8, 2016Best Original Score, Carter Burwell, Carol, Daniel Pemberton, Steve Jobs, Alexandre Desplat, The Danish Girl, Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto, The Revenant, John Williams, Johann Johannsson, Creed, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Fifty Shades of Grey, Furious 7, Elle Goulding, Wiz Khalifa, Brian Wilson, Love and Mercy, Writing's on the Wall, Sam Smith, Spectre, Simple Song #3, Sumi Jo, Youth, Mustang, Son of Saul, The Brand New Testament, The Club, The Fencer, Timbuktu, The Assassin, Best Foreign Language Film, Amour, The Artist, Best Animated Feature, Inside Out, Shaun the Sheep, Shaun the Sheep Movie, The Good Dinosaur, The Peanuts Movie, Anomalisa, Charlie Kaufman, Disney/Pixar, Emma Donoghue, Room, Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer, Spotlight, Aaron Sorkin, Adam McKay, Charlie Randolph, The Big Short, Quentin Tarantino, Brooklyn, Michael Shannon, 99 Homes, Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation, Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies, Sylvester Stallone, Paul Dano, Mark Ruffalo, Benecio del Toro, Sicario, Jacob Tremblay, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Helen Mirren, Trumbo, Jane Fonda, Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina, Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria, Lily Tomlin, Grandma, Jennifer Lawrence, Joy, Melissa McCarthy, Spy, Maggie Smith, The Lady in the VAn, The Lady in the Van, Amy Schumer, Trainwreck, Teyonah Parris, Chi-Raq, Al Pacino, Danny Collins, Infinitely Polar Bear, Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Matt Damon, The Martian, Kevin Hart, Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, Brie Larson, Charlize Theron, Carey Mulligan, Suffragette, Far from the Madding Crowd, Will Smith, Concussion, Michael Fassbender, Eddie Redmayne, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bryan Cranston, Michael Keaton, Michael B. Jordan, Tom Hanks, The Wolf of Wall Street, Todd Hayne, George Miller, Ridley Scott, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globes, 73rd Golden Globes, Golden Globe nominees, Golden Globe winners, who will win/should win, Awards Predictions, Awards Tracker, Awards Talk, 88th Academy Awards, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

COLUMN: New Year's Resolutions for the Movie Industry in 2016

As I say every year, plenty of regular everyday people make New Year's Resolutions, but I think bigger entities, namely movie makers and movie moguls, need to make them too. Over the life of this website, this is my absolute favorite editorial to write every year. I have fun taking the movie industry to task for things they need to change. I'm sarcastic, but I'm not the guy to take it to the false internet courage level of some Twitter troll. This will be as forward as I get all year.

2016, Column, Editorial, SPECIALDon ShanahanJanuary 1, 2016New Year's Resolutions, New Year's Resolutions for the Movie Industry, Movie trends, Movie problems, 2016, Column, Editorial, 2015 films, strong female protagonists, female protagonists, female leads, LGBT, LGBTQ+, Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road, Carol, The Danish Girl, Stonewall, Grandma, racism, xenophobia, jingoism, Chi-Raq, documentary, Netflix, Beasts of No Nation, J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Lucasfilm, Walt Disney Pictures, Han Solo, Boba Fett, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Golden Goose, Kevin Feige, Marvel Films, Joss Whedon, Ava DuVernay, Black Panther, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Warner Bros. Pictures, Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Spider-Man, Sony Pictures, Adam Sandler, Pixels, The Ridiculous 6, VOD, Video On Demand, Seth McFarlane, Ted 2, Terminator, Terminator: Genisys, Minions, Honest Trailers, Jennifer Lawrence, Alicia Vikander, Brie Larson, Room, Ex Machina, Joy, The Good Dinosaur, Fifty Shades of GreyComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Room

"Room" is, without a doubt, one of the most resonating and difficult films this writer has ever seen. It is a "welcome to my world" scenario that no one should ever have the unfortunate ability to match with full empathy that comes from shared experience. For it to transcend that and blossom to enrapture you the way it does is something completely spellbinding. You will not find a more powerful film experience this year.

MOVIE REVIEW, 2015, Best Films, 5 STARSDon ShanahanOctober 28, 2015Brie Larson, Larry Abrahamson, Sean Bridgers, Emma Donoghue, Jacob Tremblay, Room, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, Tom McCamusComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Digging for Fire

Joe Swanberg is a leader of the "mumblecore" movement, which primarily employs naturalistic everyday settings with improvisational dialogue and a loose story structure. Such an approach has been found to be a double-edged sword of open-endedness. Either it's fresh and interesting enough to keep you guessing or it's maddeningly lost and too unstructured for not really coming to a conclusion or making a point. This film adds another miss to the list for Swanberg. This writer loves what he stands for, but hates the underwhelming results.

OSCAR PREDICTIONS 2014: The female acting awards

It's time to make my formal predictions. In this fifth post, we are deep into the major award categories. Here are my picks for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. Stick with me and I will win you your Oscar pool. Let's go!