MOVIE REVIEW: Viceroy's House

The most superlative aspect of Viceroy’s House and its chronicle of national history for the countries of India and Pakistan is the personal passion behind the project. Bend it Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice director Gurinder Chadha is the granddaughter of family displaced by the largest migration of people in recorded human history that occurred during the Partition of India of seventy years ago. There is an undeniable core of importance and respect present in the film that shows the great care of Chadha and all involved.

2017, 2 STARS, Foreign Film, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 11, 2017Landmark Century Centre Cinemas2017, 2017 Fall Movies, Viceroy's House, Gurinder Chadha, Bend it Like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice, Partition of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Louis Mountbatten, Hugh Bonneville, Gillian Anderson, Lily Travers, Hastings Ismay, Michael Gambon, Jawaharlal Nehru, Tanveer Ghani, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Denzil Smith, Mahatma Ghandi, Neeraj Kabi, Manish Dayal, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Huma Qureshi, Gangs of Wasseypur, Ben Smithard, A.R. Rahman, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Lee Daniels' The Butler, The Butler, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespearean, film review, movie review, film commentary, movie commentary, foreign film, India, World War II, Dominion of India, life lessons, life lessons from film, life lessons from films, life lessons from movies, historical drama, romantic dramas, film critic, movie critic, Don Shanahan, Donald Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Selma

"Selma," whose name echoes the history being told, is one of those films that gets history right, honors it, entertains you without sacrificing the real thing, and moves you to no end. Anchored by an amazing lead performance from David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Selma" has the ability to break and shatter the hardest of souls, thicken your pulse, and devour your tissue box. The experience is entirely worth all of that trouble. Best of all, it earn that emotion from you. Dare I say, "Selma" might be even better than last year's Best Picture winner "12 Years a Slave." That's the level of impact we're talking about.

MOVIE REVIEW, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, 2014, 5 STARS, 2015Don ShanahanJanuary 1, 2015Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., life lessons from films, life lessons from movies, Films inspired by actual events, Tim Roth, Common, Films based on actual events, life lessons, Montgomery, Selma, Carmen Ejogo, life lessons from film, Tom Wilkinson, Giovanni Ribisi, Coretta Scott King, Ava DuVernay, Martin Sheen, Alessandro Nivola, Lyndon B. Johnson, Wendell Pierce, Oprah Winfrey, Lee Daniels' The Butler, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jim Crow Laws, Civil Rights Act, Voter Registration, Tessa Thompson, James Bevel, Diane Nash, John Lewis, Stephan James, Lorraine Toussaint, Hosea Williams, Annie Lee Cooper, Amelia Boynton, Colman Domingo, Ralph Abernathy, 12 Years a Slave, Henry G. Sanders, Jason Moran, Bradford Young, George Wallace, Lyndon JohnsonComment

OSCAR PREDICTIONS 2014: The male acting awards

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

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!