Normally, every protagonist in a live-action Walt Disney film gets a unnecessarily thick coat of heroic paint and every encounter, obstacle, or event calls for a full-throated orchestra of peril and self-importance. In a somewhat pleasant surprise, "The Finest Hours" avoids most of the the puffed-up flamboyance that we expect (and commonly grow tired of) from the Mouse House. The key word is "most," as the film thankfully dials down the usual Disney over-inflation while still possessing plenty of imperfections and distractions.

MOVIE REVIEW: Anesthesia

When a crime is committed, an unfortunate convergence of fate, luck, and coincidence occrs between people that would otherwise be strangers. The violent and emotional sting of that event then spreads to the family and friends of all parties involved, from perpetrator to victim. Like ripples in a pond, one incident can affect dozens. Actor/director Tim Blake Nelson's new film and fifth directorial feature, "Anesthesia," probes that social reverberation in a provocative way.

MOVIE REVIEW: 45 Years

Acting is more than just great lines and fancy speeches. Some of the best elements of true performance come when the camera is on and no one is saying a word. You won't find a better clinical example of that half of acting than from a 2015 film than in "45 Years" starring newly-minted Academy Award nominee Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay. You will see exactly why she earned her nomination.

MOVIE REVIEW: Joy

The problematic factor for this David O. Russell and his acting muses is the diminishing returns of their final products. Showing a case of beginner's luck, "Silver Linings Playbook" was a crowd-pleasing quirky romance that netted Lawrence an Oscar. Full of promise, "American Hustle" was an overrated and misguided attempt at Scorsese Lite. "Joy" now arrives with a random mix of events that may begin insinuate the 14th century expression of "going to the well once too often" for this group. Like the idiom's definition, Russell and company have taken repeated risks and have now pushed their luck too far.

MOVIE REVIEW: Concussion

Any time a film about a real-life whistleblower steps into view, the central question almost always becomes "Is it really true?" Audiences are commonly kind to a good human interest story of this sort, especially when it is spun into an entertaining drama or comedy. However, they are equally quick to disown one that stretches its claims of truth too far. Knowing that dramatization will always be a prominent ingredient in these types of films "based on a true story," we have to settle for asking "Is it true enough?" Such is the weighty burden of "Concussion," starring Will Smith and directed by Peter Landesman.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Good Dinosaur

As familiar and predictable as it turns out, by golly, "The Good Dinosaur" will still get you to smile greatly and tear up uncontrollably. Pixar consistently gets its emotion and resonance exactly right. This film achieves that signature Pixar punch effectively enough to be fitting holiday entertainment.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 2

With all honesty, this writer has never been a fan of "The Hunger Games." Dystopian worlds and brassy films about them are always fascinating, but kids-killing-kids-for-sport isn't a cup of tea fitting of endorsement. It is easy to be intrigued but admittedly hard to be entertained by such a thing. With the profit-milking complete from "Part 1" last November, "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 2" ties together its loose ends with reasonable quality. To this critic, the series has always come down to your tolerance of overwrought melodrama, your acceptance of illogical hang-ups, and your stomach for grim fictionalized massacre with a high body count being pushed on kids. It's hard to be a fan of that bleakness.

MOVIE REVIEW: Bone Tomahawk

The western film genre has always had a violent backbone. Even in the sunniest and most heroic of examples, more often that not, we're watching a struggle of survival where it is kill or be killed in a raw rural landscape. We label, separate, and celebrate heroes from villains, but all are killers with only opposing morals and justice of different degrees separating them. The violence is ever present. Few traditional westerns embrace its violent reality. "Bone Tomahawk" surges head first into it with absolute courage and graphic disregard.

MOVIE REVIEW: Burnt

Due entirely to his talent and appeal, two hours of Bradley-being-Bradley works and the film will rightly entertain at an acceptable superficial level. The subject is simple and the the risk is low. The food is pretty, the ensemble is smooth, and the cliches are pre-made. While "Burnt" offers a flourish or two to spark a little extra entertainment, it is far from the grass roots personal touch and smaller scale passion that was Favreau's "Chef" a year ago. "Burnt" is, in essence, more elitist and that requires you to be impressed, but only at a distance.

DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: Motley's Law

51st Chicago International Film Festival special presentation

In this writer's opinion, documentary films are at their strongest when they merge two symbiotic pairs of traits. A good documentary and its human interest story merges truth with its narrative. Secondly, a good documentary merges its overarching message with art. Any of those four ingredients alone are not enough. In the documentary genre, a narrative without truth defeats its nonfiction purpose and the central message being delivered needs the artistic touch requisite to its chosen medium of cinema. As long as it can achieve those two mergers, a successful documentary can take any subject and give it proper focus.

MOVIE REVIEW: Bridge of Spies

Sewn with care to document an unopened storybook file on little-rememberd, forgotten Cold War heroics and theatrics, "Bridge of Spies" is the kind of historical drama that Steven Spielberg can make in his sleep. In a way, this is Spielberg's throwback answer to "Argo," three years after Ben Affleck's film swept the top Oscars away from Spielberg's own "Lincoln." He doesn't need that one-upmanship for his ego. "Bridge of Spies" is more a reminder that the master is still capable of making a winner with ease.

MOVIE REVIEW: Embers

51st Chicago International Film Festival special presentation

With "Embers," we definitely have something to bite into from first-time director Claire Carre. The film occupies a domestic world after an unseen neurological disaster that caused societal collapse. People drift aimlessly through urban ruins trying to eek out existence and survival. Worst of all, the people still alive now are stricken with amnesia and now have the inability to keep short-term memory. Think "Memento" on a community-sized scale.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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