by Juergen Strenger

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. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

2019, 2020, 3 STARS, GUEST CRITIC, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social MediaDon ShanahanOctober 3, 2020ClemencyComment

GUEST CRITIC #34: Me Before You

by Adrian Johansen

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. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

2019, 2020, 3 STARS, GUEST CRITIC, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social MediaDon ShanahanSeptember 28, 2020ClemencyComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Cuties (Migonnes)

When it comes to Cuties, if you don’t like what you see of these errant kids left to their own wiles and devices, your gut is accurate and working. If its imagery bothers you, it’s supposed to. Check your gaze and your privilege. Now, look past the fictional take and target the very valid and present potential problem in our own settings and lives off the Netflix couch. If you don’t want that, prevent it with education. If you don’t want those sexualized elements to be goals, don’t make them so appealing and desirable to the uninformed. Adjust those expectations or create better ones. Shake your head, change your stance to empathy and honesty, and act accordingly to our daughters and children. Get there and you have made it precisely to the point that is being hammered home.

MOVIE REVIEW: Blackbird

Quite quickly into Roger Michell’s Blackbird, Susan Sarandon stamps exactly what kind of terminally ill character this film intends to portray. You may see the Academy Award winner’s aged luminosity but, let me tell you, this is far from a retread of her beloved 1998 film Stepmom. Her Lily is tired of the pretend pleasantries as she summons her extended family to her and husband’s beachfront homestead. She is done with the constant “who are you” questions, “are you OK” observation checks, and her own cordiality to retort with “glad you’re here.”

2020, 2019, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Film Festival, Independent Film, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanSeptember 13, 2020Comment

GUEST CRITIC #32: Blue Valentine

by Lafronda Stumn

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. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

2019, 2020, 3 STARS, GUEST CRITIC, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social MediaDon ShanahanSeptember 12, 2020ClemencyComment

GUEST CRITIC #31: Clemency

by Lafronda Stumn

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. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

2019, 2020, 3 STARS, GUEST CRITIC, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social MediaDon ShanahanSeptember 5, 2020ClemencyComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The One and Only Ivan

Enjoying an easy little movie like Disney’s The One and Only Ivan shouldn’t take qualifiers, but it does. Two in fact. The first is more black-and-white and depends on your trigger pressure about animals in captivity in this mindful post-Harambe and post-Blackfish world. If your personal pull weight is high enough to condone (over tolerate) and enjoy a circus or a zoo operation, you pass round one. If you consider those settings no better than inhumane minstrel shows, that will lose you here. The second qualifier gets more existential.

2020, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanAugust 19, 2020Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Endless

For wishful reasons beyond the exploitative ones, people want to believe in ghosts. They would be alright with even the creepiest voyeur version or novelty of that to be real. Why? Because the existence of ghosts would mean there’s something else out there after our inevitable deaths. A tangible afterlife creates massive spiritual implications that stir so many. Molding their fictional clay, movies love plucking that particular heartstring, and the new streaming film Endless follows that convention.

2020, 3 STARS, Home Media, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanAugust 15, 2020Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Made in Italy

Actors are often asked by the many curious people fascinated by their work where they find the inspirations for the characters they play. Dropped by talk show hosts and adoring fans alike, it’s a common question, but a welcome open-ended one. The answers are almost always a fascinating blend of intentional craftsmanship and revealed individual quirks. If you know the personal history of Liam Neeson away from his tough and towering screen personas, you will know he, and his son Micheal Richardson, did not have to dig far for their characters in Made in Italy.

2020, 3 STARS, Independent Film, Home Media, Streaming, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 8, 2020Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Summerland

Hospitality jokes aside, manners come into play. The wrinkle is when pleasing homeliness mixes with the negative connotation of hospitality. Summerland, the feature film directorial debut of playwright Jessica Swale, emanates pleasantry around a central character who is the rude opposite. No matter how uncouth or ill-tempered Gemma Arterton’s hermetic author Alice behaves, an honorable heart shines through. That’s the narrative oil and water of this nostalgic film.

3 STARS, Independent Film, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanAugust 2, 2020Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Old Guard

Charlize would be the one to tell Queen to take their romantic sweetness and shove it with harshness. That tone and timbre works just fine for the Academy Award winner who has been cementing this attitudinal career niche for the better part of a decade. Based on Greg Rucka’s 2017 Image Comics graphic novel featuring the art of Leandro Fernandez, The Old Guard combines its own brew of created legends intersecting modern settings and compulsions. Like its lead, The Old Guard has a toughness completely devoid of anything trite. The narrative screws might not be the tightest, but its aim is deadly enough to draw you in.

2020, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, Streaming, Video on DemandDon ShanahanJuly 8, 2020Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Irresistible

Jon Stewart’s new film Irresistible holds a broad and powerful mirror up to the lies and guises of America’s election economy. Right when you think an outspoken personality like the beloved former host of The Daily Show is going to shout from his now-taller cinematic pontiff a chosen side or favorite, he remarkably doesn’t. This is an even-handed farce of finger-pointing where both political sides have dirty hands and the media in the middle is wholly and equally complicit. Stewart unleashes this cringing astonishment in a surprising movie that pulls your leg and also very rug right out from underneath you.