GUEST CRITIC #16: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. My latest "Guest Critic" is a high school classmate of mine, Kelly Meents.

VIDEO: Post-film reactions to "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk"

Five of the best film critics Chicago has to offer from the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle may have dodged the high frame rate experiment of Ang Lee's "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk," but they still caught the full film. Enjoy the mixed reactions from Leo Brady, Jon Espino, Clint Worthington, Don Shanahan, and Jim Alexander!

MOVIE REVIEW: Nocturnal Animals

The leap for every filmmaker is translating their creative eye to the cinematic medium. Hitchcock’s feverish writing fed his mise-en-scene and attention to detail. Spielberg grew his outdoor sense of adventure to the highest possibilities and beyond. With an eye for the cultured human form and colorful finery, Tom Ford saturates every edge of his films with ornate style. The man is never boring and neither is one iota of “Nocturnal Animals,” Ford’s second feature film and a cage-rattling psychological thriller.

MOVIE REVIEW: Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

There are commendable allegories bottled somewhere inside both Ben Fountain’s 2012 award-winning novel and Ang Lee’s adaptation of “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.” However, knowing what we know now about “paid patriotism” since 2015, those morals, and any patriotic pride the fictional story’s grand setting can muster, have lost too much of their high ground to inspire. It is difficult to invest in a reflective film wrestling with disillusionment when too many current audiences already enter with the same feelings about the War on Terror. Disillusionment of disillusionment is a tough sell if the goal is the change minds.

MOVIE REVIEW: Arrival

To reveal more of the emotional and scientific obstacle course would take away from the engrossing experience to be had by “Arrival.” This is the anti-”Independence Day,” so don’t expect a populist romp. Instead, open your mind to a stimulating and provocative mindbender that may require more than one viewing to grasp and appreciate. The trippy events unfolding out of the screenplay tangle the puppeteer’s strings and play with narrative and filmmaking forces few are daring enough, and smart enough, to wield.

SPECIAL: A message from the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle

The CIFCC was founded on the pillar of diversity. It is a message that resonates in all that we do, both as a group and as critics. In our eyes and through our passion as film lovers and creative individuals, diversity means more than just demographics. Take a watch and a listen to this special trailer and message from the CIFCC, featuring yours truly.

MOVIE REVIEW: Hacksaw Ridge

It should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the career path of Mel Gibson, either in front or behind the camera, that "Hacksaw Ridge" rings up the descriptor of "excessive" more than any film to date this year. "Hacksaw Ridge" is a war film of excessive violence operatically woven into a biopic screen story of excessive hero worship based on a true story of World War II Congressional Medal of Honor winner Desmond Doss. Both excesses are laid on very thick. Only half of one of them are worth it.

MOVIE REVIEW: Loving

With a minimalist style and unadorned simplicity to reflect on racial intolerance, Jeff Nichols crafts “Loving” as a reminiscence of history without the histrionics. Devoid of soapboxes, speechifying, and manufactured swells of forced emotion seen in far too many historical dramas, “Loving” cuts a different cloth, trading in Hollywood glamor for blue collar truthfulness. Nichols brilliantly lets the honesty and grace of Richard and Mildred Loving stand on their own without an unnecessary pedestal. Cite this film as proof that “tell it like it is” does not require bombastic noise and volume.

MOVIE REVIEW: Moonlight

I dare you to look into the painful eyes of the three ages of Chiron and their matching performers and not have your soul triple in weight. The arc in "Moonlight" from the innocence of the little boy to the uncomfortable vulnerability hiding underneath the muscles and gold fronts of the hardened resulting adult is arduously moving on multiple levels. Observing his difficulties forces you to absorb the conflict and inescapable trepidation that surrounds the shared character. Pressing his heart to your own makes for one of the most moving and rewarding film experiences this year.

DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: Resilience: The Biology of Stress and Science of Hope

The light shed by the shared research, connections, and testimonials of James Redford’s documentary “Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope” opens eyes and stirs immediate personal reflection. Toward your own self or in the role of a parent, “Resilience” puts the right mirrors in front of faces. It is a worthy alarm notification that encourages more character building than being told to “pull up your bootstraps.”

MOVIE REVIEW: Doctor Strange

Now in its third phase, Marvel continues to take C-level and D-list comic book characters and titles, breath cinematic life into them with top-notch talent in front of and behind the camera, and turn the obscure in newly minted household names and merchandising windfalls. "Doctor Strange" continues the studio's blueprint of Midas Touch success while jubilantly kicking down the door for magic and mysticism in the MCU. You may not know him yet, but Stephen Strange is a major player and huge addition to an already-loaded heroic panorama.

SHORT FILM REVIEW: The Story of 90 Coins

"The Story of 90 Coins" is a microcosm of pure and modern young love that transfers in any language and is free of unnecessary cinematic obstacle courses that strain believability. This short story is completely relatable and endearing melodrama in all its approachable beauty that succeeds in under 10 minutes to tug heartstrings and linger in your consciousness. Don’t you dare call this an overlong greeting card, a miniature soap opera, or a expanded touchy-feely TV commercial.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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