MOVIE REVIEW: Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete)

All eyes are on the hotly anticipated live-action "re-imagining" of Walt Disney Pictures' enormously successful "Beauty and the Beast" from 1991. That March 2017 sure-fire blockbuster will garner tremendous attention in its attempt to honor the animated Best Picture Oscar nominee and double Academy Award winner. In the meantime, the fairy tale's home country of France throws down its own gauntlet to give Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's 1740 original story and Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's abridged 1756 standard the grand, epic big-screen treatment it warrants. Let's just say the French sure know what they are doing.

SHORT FILM REVIEW: Endless Waltz

People will speak with dueling dichotomy and similarity that nothing is more simple, and yet more complicated, than life and death. The plainness comes in the inevitability of the outcome no matter the the journey, while the complexity lies in the individual beauty of each life’s path. In a symphonic microcosm of eight minutes, the short film “Endless Waltz” paints its portrait of beauty giving way to finality with utter perfection.

2016, 5 STARS, MOVIE REVIEW, SHORT FILMS, Video on DemandDon ShanahanSeptember 21, 2016Crescent Beach2016, short film review, Short Film, short film commentary, Short films, Best Live Action Short, Best Live Action Short Film, Endless Waltz, Zac Richardson, Erika Forest, Looking Death in the Eye, Crescent Beach, British Columbia, Best Documentary Short Subject, Documentary Short, Kevin Lee Graham, Luis Miguesl Villarreal, Infinito non Finito, Vaughn Lowell Swenson, Victoria Raskin, YouTube, Zachary Richardson, Shelley Janze, Mona Hassamen, Sarah Bryn Malladaine, Zoe Law, Sahara Forest, Naomi Hughes-Hall, Ken Godmere, Nicole Norikowa, life les, life lessons, life lessons from films, life lessons from movies, life lesson, life lessons from film, life lessons from documentaries, movie commentary, film commentary, movie review, film review, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

VIDEO: Post-film reactions to "Sully"

Three top-notch film critics of the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle survived the miracle flight recreations and Clint Eastwood's soft touch of "Sully," starring Tom Hanks. Hear the mixed reactions after an advance screening from Jon Espino, Emmanuel Noisette, and myself!

VIDEO: Post-film reactions to "The Light Between the Oceans"

Two founders and directors of the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle felt the romantic power of "The Light Between Oceans" from director Derek Cianfrance and starring Oscar contenders Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, and Rachel Weisz. Enjoy the first impressions of myself andJim Alexander of The Movie Blog and The Young Folks!

VIDEO: Post-film reactions to "Hands of Stone"

Three critics of Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle, including your truly, answer the bell to share their punches and counter-punches on the Roberto Duran biopic "Hands of Stone." Enjoy the hot takes of Emmanuel Noisette, Jim Alexander, and myself!

VIDEO: Post-film reactions to "War Dogs"

Three of the four founders and directors, including yours truly, of the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle brandished their firearm-free first-takes and reviews of "War Dogs" starring Jonah Hill and Miles Teller, directed by Todd Phillips. Here's Pamela Powell, Jim Alexander, and myself with our first impressions!

MOVIE REVIEW: Snowden

There was a time Oliver Stone took risks and punched harder with his filmmaking style and history-challenging investigation efforts through compelling dramatization. The 70-year-old self-described dramatist used to stir provocative emotions and drop jaws with grand revelations. Those days feel like a distant memory with "Snowden."

MOVIE REVIEW: Bridget Jones's Baby

Tongues are inserted into cheeks at a rapid-fire pace in “Bridget Jones’s Baby. The euphemisms, drollery, puns, wild physical gags, and self-deprecating farce originate from all directions and target anyone with eyes and a smile. The writing is harebrained in the most smart and witty ways possible and, trust me, that is a compliment. Better yet, when it needs to, the movie turns off the jokes and hits you with the necessary heart to make all the silly stuff enormously endearing.

2016, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEW, 3 STARSDon ShanahanSeptember 14, 2016Kerasotes ShowPlace ICON X at Roosevelt Collections2016, 2016 Fall Movies, Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason, Bridget Jones's Baby, Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Patrick Dempsey, Colin Firth, Tim Beven, Eric Fellner, Sharon Maguire, Helen Fielding, Emma Thompson, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Women over 40, Romantic comedies, life lesson, life lessons from films, life lessons from film, life lessons from movies, Life lessons, movie review, film review, movie commentary, film commentary, sequels, movie sequels, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Bridget Jones, Dan Mazar, Dan Mazer, Sarah Solemani, Sally Phillips, James Callis, Shirley Richardson, Neil Pearson, Kate O'Flynn, Gangnam StyleComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Reparation

Building domestic suspense in poignant fashion and shifting between three eras, “Reparation” examines potent human flaws and plants them in small-town America with real-life consequences. This film doesn’t need a grandiose battlefield saga of hidden heroism to be the catalyst. This isn’t “American Sniper” and glossy hero worship. “Reparation” welcomes more intimate and jagged complications with authentic down-home realism and charm.

2015, 2016, 4 STARS, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 12, 2016The Wilmette TheatreReparation, Kyle Ham, The Wilmette Theatre, Chicago, Chicago premiere, Jon Huertas, Marc Menchaca, Virginia Newcomb, Drew Powell, Dale Dye Thomas, Brody Behr, Keith Szarabajka, The Activist, Steve Timm, Austin Film Festival, Breckenridge Film Festival, Julien Dubuque International Film Festival, Santa Fe Film Festival, River's Edge International Film Festival, Sedona International Film Festival, life lessons from films, life lessons from film, life lessons from movies, life lessons, Life lessons, film commentary, movie commentary, film review, movie review, independent films, indie film, Putnam County, Indiana, Don Shanah, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Greencastle, PTSD, Dissociative Amnesia, Dissociative disordersComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Sully

Celebrated director Clint Eastwood is no stranger to biopics based on historical figures, making him an ardent practitioner of hero worship. Because the 86-year-old, four-time Oscar winner classically directs with a soft hand and a comely tone, his brand of adoration consistently lands on the veneration half of the definition. Combining forces for the first time with another hero worship professional in All-American leading man Tom Hanks on “Sully,” you have double the cinematic potential of cherished devotion.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Sea of Trees

Cloying as it may be to some, “The Sea of Trees” still contains a poetry and a message of forced reflection and vitality with incorporeal nudges. These are touchy musings, for sure. Audiences that have the reflective capacity for tapping into those feelings and fears will appreciate this effort and the dedicated performances. Close-hearted and discomforted cynics that do not will flatly dismiss it instead and tell you (and it) to keep your feelings to yourself. This writer is openly capable of being in the first audience welcoming the deep thoughts.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Light Between Oceans

One could say melodramas take preposterous human mistakes and play them for dramatic effect. They challenge the audience to interpret how you would act defiantly or morally differently in the same situation. These films do so while still compelling you watch in hope for any semblance of a happy ending. To understand “The Light Between Oceans” is to understand melodrama. The themes of melodramatic journeys are meant to be arduous. In the medium of film, the clinchers that aid in the ability to embrace and appreciate a melodrama are its tone and the acting performances. “The Light Between Oceans” flourishes to accomplish both benchmarks.