Posts tagged Lyndon B. Johnson
MOVIE REVIEW: Jackie
MOVIE REVIEW: Jackie

Mesmerizing describes the film as a whole and its incomparable lead performance from Academy Award winner Natalie Portman playing First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the immediate hours and days following her husband's 1963 assassination.  Far from a biopic and more of a psychological examination, Portman and Larrain sear the screen with emotion and imagery that is as captivating as it is difficult.  It is astonishing that it takes a foreign director to create the most empowering portrait of American history put to film in years.

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2016, 5 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanChicago International Film Festival2016, 2016 Holiday Movies, Jackie, Jackie Kennedy, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Robert Kennedy, Greta Gerwig, Chicago International Film Festival, 52nd Chicago International Film Festival, Special Presentations, Best of 2016, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actress, JFK, Pablo Larrain, No, Neruda, Billy Crudup, Max Casella, John Hurt, John F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Jr., Caroline Kennedy, Movie presidents, First Lady, Camelot, movie review, film review, movie commentary, film commentary, film festival, Festival review, Festival coverage, life lessons from film, life lessons from movies, life lessons from films, life lessons, Life lessons, life lesson, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Jacqueline Kennedy, Jean Rabasse, Halina Gebarowicz, Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe, Broadway musical, Mica Levi, Noah Oppenheim, Madeline Fontaine, Mac Casella, Jack Valenti, John Carroll Lynch, Lyndon B. Johnson, Casper Phillipsom, Theodore H. White, LIFE magazine, Hyannis PortComment
MOVIE REVIEW: Selma
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.

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MOVIE REVIEW, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, 2014, 5 STARS, 2015Don ShanahanDr. 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