MOVIE REVIEW: The Great Wall

"The Great Wall" is an imposing creature feature that stands as a three-headed glamour project. You have an A-list star venturing overseas for international credibility and a splashy director landing his official English-language debut. Aiming higher in aspiration is a production company hoping to open a new and profitable pipeline of investment between Hollywood and China. Visually splendid from top to bottom, this epic adventure squeaks by on its looks and spares no expense to make sure of that.

CAPSULE REVIEWS: The Oscar nominees for Best Animated Short

This year’s Academy Award nominees for Best Animated Short are an eclectic bunch. One of them, “Borrowed Time,” I have previously reviewed in full on this website. Here are my collected capsule reviews of the slate of five, complete with my signature life lessons. Look for the theaters this month bundling these nominees together for public viewing and ticket opportunities.

DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: I Am Not Your Negro

The documentary “I Am Not Your Negro” from director Raoul Peck unearths “Remember This House,” an unfinished 1979 manuscript of the James Baldwin’s recollections of Medgar, Malcolm, and Martin. This outstanding and informative film presents Baldwin’s musings alongside sobering imagery of both the turbulent history of the era and parallel occurrences of modern racial unrest that echo the same violence, inequality, anger, and sorrow. As an Oscar nominee in a banner year for feature documentaries, “I Am Your Negro” is essential viewing.

MOVIE REVIEW: Julieta

Renowned Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar seizes our attention and lights the fires of intrigue with human simplicity in “Julieta,” his 20th feature film and Spain’s entry this year for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Concocting a brew of passion coupled with remorse across personal history young and old, Almodovar unspools the tangled threads of a guilt-ridden woman’s heart. Adapted from three Alice Munro short stories, “Julieta” is a strong return to the female-focused storyscapes that have made him a legend.

MOVIE REVIEW: Go North

All too often, the recent young adult wave of big studio dystopian fiction films contain three root faults. First, they shoot off preposterous peril for the sake of peril like a pyromaniac loose in a fireworks warehouse. Secondly, within the peril is the overused trope of militarizing teens and children. Finally, the screenwriters feel the need to over-explain every little thing about its created universe as if the audience can’t think for themselves or be challenged to draw an inference or two. For the most part, the small budget independent film “Go North” successfully and thankfully operates above those three traps.

MOVIE REVIEW: Barry

Every influential man or woman had a formative period of their life where their impressionable knowledge coalesced into cemented principles that would guide them going forward. The outgoing 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, is no different. The new Netflix and VOD entry “Barry,” from director Vikram Gandhi, muses on the internal and external catalysts that shaped the then-20-year-old piece of unformed clay into the future leader of the free world.

COLUMN: 16 hidden gem films from 2016

Even with my access to more-than-most with festival coverage and press credentials, I can’t see everything. What I can do is prop up some hidden gems that I was lucky enough to see and review. Here are 16 under-seen winners from 2016. The qualifier for the list was title earning less than $1 million at the box office. They are ranked from highest-scoring review to least.

MOVIE REVIEW: A Monster Calls

J.A. Bayona’s film, based on the 2011 novel of the same name and adapted for the screen by the author himself, Patrick Hess, operates with a similar dichotomy and balancing act with its genre. “Fantasy” and “genuine” are two words that do not normally mix together. “A Monster Calls” creates an engrossing tale of allegory and myth and still roots it in a setting of stark reality filled with family and flaws.

COLUMN: The 10 Best Films of 2016

I’ll have you know that this is the latest this website has ever posted a “10 Best” list in its six-plus year history. I want to say that 2016 exhausted me, but it didn’t. “Every Movie Has a Lesson” published a personal-best 114 film reviews in 2016. Even after a record year, there is part of me that sits here and knows there was room for more. The to-do list of recommended films and overdue titles is never empty.

MOVIE REVIEW: Patriots Day

Where using a composite character gets dicey is when they are made the lead because their fictional presence can outweigh the history and accuracy around them. Too much can be skewed to suit a character that doesn’t exist. That is exactly what occurs in “Patriots Day,” Peter Berg’s third consecutive collaboration with Mark Wahlberg. The makings for a stocked and stacked ensemble drama are dismantled by the misplaced hero worship that becomes little more than a vanity project.

MOVIE REVIEW: Live by Night

Every winning streak has to end to some time. “Live by Night” will go down as the first “L” in the loss column for Ben Affleck as a film director. After climbing to the top of the mountain with the trio of “Gone Baby Gone,” “The Town,” and the Oscar parade of “Argo,” there was nowhere to go but down, but this newest film is a little more than down.

SPECIAL: Winners announced for the first annual CIFCC Awards!

The 28 film critics and voting members, including yours truly, of the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle completed their final ballots in 25 categories for their first annual CIFCC Awards. The CIFCC hosted an invitation-only awards reception at Transistor Chicago on January 8, 2017.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

BRINGING YOU MOVIE REVIEWS AND MORE SINCE 2010

CRYPTOCASINOS

TheVore.com Streaming options

Brilliantly

Content & Links