Chasing the Blues is a dark comedy through and through. Director Scott Smith and his co-writer Kevin Guifoile crafted an engaging yarn of hijinks and hilarity. Their narrative might feel like something out of a Coen brothers rough draft, but this film sides with a far less gonzo approach that suits its shrewder stature. Like the musical genre at its core, patient storytelling is at the forefront. Could it use a stiffer punch or two? Maybe, but then it wouldn’t be the blue and not everything has to be shock cinema. Waiting for the payoff in this tidy 77-minute film is an easy and worthwhile short hike to climb.

2017, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Video on DemandDon ShanahanOctober 18, 201753rd Chicago International Film Festival2017, U.S. Indies, Chicago International Film Festival, 53rd Chicago International Film Festival, CIFF, CIFCC, independent films, independent film, Chasing the Blues, Scott Smith, Jimmie Kane Baldwin, Cicero Records, Chicago, Chicago films, The Royal Tenenbaums, Grant Rosenmeyer, Chelsea Tavares, Anna Maria Horsford, Amen, Ronald L. Conner, Kevin Guilfoile, blues, blues music, movie review, film review, festival preview, film festival, Festival coverage, Festival review, movie commentary, film commentary, music, movie critic, film critic, AMC River East 21, press credentials, life lessons, life lessons from movies, life lessons from film, life lessons from films, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Donald Shanahan, Don ShanahanComment

SHORT FILM REVIEW: Loyalty or Betrayal

By design and in the name of essential effectiveness, a good short film has to cut to the chase. Their tricks of cinematic shorthand in the exposition department are what make them entertaining. When the micro-budgeted Loyalty and Betrayal opens on the imagery of a man on his bedroom floor putting a gun to his forehead, a chase has certainly been cut. Writer/director Jonathan Vargas grabs us right there and locks our gaze.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Young Offenders

The banter and B.S. traded back and forth between Alex Murphy and Chris Walley is as hysterical as it is pleasurably uncouth. It’s an absolute wonder to realize that The Young Offenders is mutually their first on-camera film roles. Alex and Chris’s chemistry through sarcasm and shared shenanigans feels and looks effortless. Flabbergasted energy blasts out of both of them and it’s a hoot to watch. Seeing the two young actors operate these over-the-top losers with reckless abandon while still injecting a little coming-of-age heart for good measure, makes the film highly entertaining.

2017, 2016, 3 STARS, Chicago Film Festival, Foreign Film, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanOctober 3, 2017Gene Siskel Film Center2017, The Young Offenders, Children's Act of 2001, Urban Dictionary, Knacker, Alex Murphy, Chris Walley, hijinks, Dominic MacHale, Shane Casey, Hilary Rose, Trainspotting, Danny Boyle, Conor MacSweeney, Jock Murphy, Euro, Peter Foott, Irish, Ireland, Ireland films, films set in Ireland, Irish American Movie Hooley, Irish films, Irish-themed films, Irish American films, 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey, Hibernian Transmedia, Movie Hooley, Gene Siskel Film Center, Siskel Film Center, Mike Houlihan, CIFCC, Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle, 3rd annual Irish American Movie Hooley, movie critic, film critic, foreign film, independent film, independent films, heist films, coming of age, movie review, film review, movie commentary, film commentary, Festival coverage, festival preview, closing night, comedy, life lessons, life lessons from film, life lessons from movies, life lessons from films, life lessons from foreign films, Don Shanahan, Donald Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Dunning Man

Inspired by true events, which will cause a fun double take as the film transpires, The Dunning Man is adapted from the published short stories of producer Kevin Fortuna. Precariously, at times, balancing somewhere between an urban drama and paperback crime novel, the film presents a seedy slice of Atlantic City calmed by nostalgic scene transitions of vintage footage of the city in its decadent heyday.

2017, 3 STARS, Chicago Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social MediaDon ShanahanSeptember 28, 2017Gene Siskel Film Center2016, 2017, The Dunning Man, Irish, Irish films, Irish-themed films, Irish American films, Irish American Movie Hooley, 2017 Irish American Movie Hooley, 3rd annual Irish American Movie Hooley, Ireland, Ireland films, 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey, Hibernian Transmedia, Movie Hooley, Gene Siskel Film Center, Siskel Film Center, Opening Night Film, Mike Houlihan, Atlantic City, Dun, James Carpinello, Gotham, Tom Kemp, Manchester by the Sea, Luke Cage, Queen Sugar, Green Zone, Nicoye Banks, Langston Fishburne, Dawn-Lyen Gardner, Matthew Rimmer, Scott Oakley, Kevin Fortuna, Michael Clayton, Petr Cikhart, San Jose Film Festival, Hoboken Film Festival, Emerald Loop Bar, film review, movie review, film commentary, movie commentary, film critic, movie critic, CIFCC, Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle, life lessons, life lessons from film, life lessons from films, life lessons from movies, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Villainess

The opening number makes the single-take climax fight with Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde look like a box waltz lesson from an elementary school gym class. The woman is the reckless assassin Sook-hee, played by Ok-bin Kim of Thirst, and the scene ends with a hint of a deranged smile of glee. The Villainess spins with dynamic energy of wanton mayhem and operatic displays of graphic violence when the talking stops and confrontations begin.

MOVIE REVIEW: mother!

There is extreme thematic and visceral content in mother! that will rattle even the toughest souls. Metaphorical imagery and symbolism are everywhere, and the number of literal and figurative interpretations of what is implicitly or explicitly transpiring can kill as many brain cells as it multiplies. The film begs endless questioning. Surviving and absorbing the film becomes a maddening experience. In the end, what is evident to celebrate is also categorically impossible to fully condone.

2017, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Film Festival, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 13, 2017AMC River East 212017, 2017 Fall Movies, mother!, Mother, Mother!, Darren Aronofsky, Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfieffer, Domhnall Gleason, Brian Gleeson, Hunger Games franchise, Philip Messina, Matthew Libatique, Oscar winners, Rosemary's Baby, The End of the World, Skeeter Davis, Patti Smith, film review, movie review, advance movie review, film commentary, movie commentary, Hollywood commentary, social commentary, movie critic, film critic, CIFCC, Venice Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, film festival, Black Swan, Noah, life lessons, life lessons from movies, life lessons from film, Mindfuck, Mindfuck movies, Mindfuck films, psychological thriller, horror, Don Shanahan, Donald Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Chicago Independent Film Critics CircleComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis

In a terse 80 minutes, The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis locks its suspenseful build and holds your attention. Open-ended as it is, the film could have employed additional time to hammer its points home and offer a payoff. However, it’s minimal surface and suddenness feels intentional to mirror the mysterious fates that befell so many people of this era. Quietly powerful, the effect and feeling are convincing.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Glass Castle

Mulling over the many layers and events of Destin Daniel Cretton’s film adaptation of Jeanette Wells’ memoirs The Glass Castle, I keep coming back to the same essential question: "Who am I to judge someone else's life story or life choices?" If the real Jeanette Wells is able to make peace with the events of her childhood, how can I, or anyone, tell her she's wrong? The answer is we can’t (and shouldn’t) and that’s a hurdle not everyone has shown to be prepared for or able to separate from critique.

DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power

Asking someone if they subscribe to the science of climate change might as well be as tenuous as asking a person if they believe in God. Climate change has become a divisive firebrand topic like few others in the decade since the Oscar-winning and punctually motivating documentary An Inconvenient Truth. In several ways, the topic has come a long way in some places only to slip backward in other measures. An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power is a persuasive update on the matter.

MOVIE REVIEW: Menashe

Weinstein writes and directs what constitutes as a love letter to a culture, a community, and to the essence of fatherhood. The lead’s personal plight is a compelling one done with grace and admiration for attaching the right layer of empathy. It’s not overly heavy in any particular way, but Menashe carries enough honesty, enough will, and enough power to break any father’s heart. There’s strength to be found in that.

Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, Independent Film, 2017, 3 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 3, 2017foreign langugage film, Yiddish, Festival coverage, podcasting, Podcast, fathers, CIFCC, Menashe Lustig, Feelin' Film Podcast, Borough Park, Don Shanahan, podcast, Torah, film festival, life lessons, Sundance Film Festival, movie fathers, A24, Mr. Mom, podcast guest, 5th Chicago Critics Film Festival, 2017, Brooklyn, Every Movie Has a Lesson, 2017 Sundance Film Festival, Donald Shanahan, podcast discussion, film fathers, movie dads, Hasidic Jews, Ruben Niborski, film dads, A24 Films, Menashe, Yoel Weisshaus, life lessons from movies, Feelin' Film, life lessons from film, Meyer Schwartz, films about fatherhood, life lessons from foreign films, Festival review, fathers in film, CFCA, independent film, Joshua Z. Weinstein, movies about fatherhood, Chicago Critics Film FestivalComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Atomic Blonde

The best cinematic sales job in the world goes to Charlize Theron, performing 98% of her own stunts and playing the flaxen viper with every drop of convincing venom necessary, which is always a razz because she can be an absolute ham off-screen. She prefers the hard stuff, just like her character’s taste in booze.

2017, 3 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanJuly 29, 2017Kerasote ShowPlace ICON XComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Dunkirk

As technically proficient and respectful to history as Dunkirk is, no substantial human anchors of emotion emerge in this film that wants to be seen as an inspiring rescue saga before a war film or historical epic. The totems of fear and survival are ever-present, but there are no magnetic characters to carry those existential burdens. It is a critical flaw in an otherwise astounding dramatic thriller.

2017, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanJuly 18, 2017Comment