As Jane and Will’s mutual chapters get closer to their as-yet-unrevealed thirtysomething present situations, the chemistry between the actors increases. More importantly, the maturity of the romantic risks involved also increases. For a movie that started as hot-and-bothered as it did, the pendulum swing to dramedy heaviness of what’s really going on with these two in Which Brings Me to You is welcome and precarious at the same time. Like the leap the characters need to make to be better together, the 24-hour shorthand and 98-minute rush to pull it off is challenging and you miss the challenging humor.

MOVIE REVIEW: Wish

Taken for what its title represents, Wish maintains what has become the comprehensive theme and guiding principle throughout the history of the Walt Disney Company. Proudly continuing a century now after its founding, each new creative effort proves the Disney well of artistic storytelling striving for wish fulfillment remains bouyant and bottomless. Wish is a sparkling and meaningful new entry that genuflects to its history and stamps a little piece of its own.

2023, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Animated Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanNovember 18, 2023Wish, Ariana DeBose, Chris PineComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Marvels

For better or worse, “higher, further, faster” is exactly what you get with The Marvels. The sequel triples the space-faring swashbuckling beyond Earth, the weird and wacky possibilities of its galactic conundrum, and the character development pace of having three headlining leads. In an attempt to steer all the “higher, further, faster” going on, The Marvels adds “together” to the mantra (and soundtrack) and branches to a new one with “stand tall without standing alone.” The outcome is an electric blast of welcome, pure, and multiplied girl power.

3 STARS, 2023, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanNovember 8, 2023The Marvels, Captain MarvelComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Priscilla

Matching the legend status branding and first-name-only titling of Baz Luhrmann, Coppola’s aim was to present the little-known side of the Presley story that happened under domestic lamplights instead of the flashbulbs of the public eye. The writer-director had to do so with a certain degree of difficulty similar to Ava DuVernay’s challenge on Selma nine years ago where the estate of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had granted licenses for King’s speeches to another studio and film project. Thanks to approval given to Luhrmann already, no Elvis Presley music is used in Priscilla.

2023, 3 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanNovember 2, 2023Priscilla, Jacob Elordi, Sofia Coppola, Cailee Spaeny, A24Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Saturday Night Inside Out

Saturday Night Inside Out follows a 26-year-old Chicagoan as he navigates an emotionally arduous 24-hour span that may or may not become a turning point for the next five or ten years of his life. Step back from that one-sentence summary and ask yourself what kind of events, especially for an individual at that age, could possibly construct a defining moment on that level. If you’re thinking about friends, family, career and a love life, you would be right because all four of those–and then some– come into play in Saturday Night Inside Out.

2023, 3 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanOctober 4, 2023Saturday Night Inside Out, Connor McBride, Zach PapalasComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Outlaw Johnny Black

Outlaw Johnny Black is a unique genre experiment that knows damn well what cookie cutter it’s using. Led by star Michael Jai White stepping into the director’s chair, these are the people that made the hilarious blaxploitation cult classic Black Dynamite 14 years ago. Yes! Go ahead and drop a Jules Winfield reply to that news. With a clenched fist and a tongue in its cheek, White and company are here to emulate and embellish the best and worst qualities of westerns by making a cool one of their own.

2023, 3 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanSeptember 20, 2023Outlaw Johnny Black, Michael Jai WhiteComment

MOVIE REVIEW: A Haunting in Venice

Any murder, at its garden variety face value, should be frightening enough, but A Haunting in Venice twists the knife further. Narrative and cinematic infusions of supernatural elements and implications not found in Hallowe’en Party are the film’s largest dramatic improvement from the source text. They turn what would merely be posh and intriguing in an ordeal far scarier in design and risk. Starting with that munched bird cold open and developing later with hallucinations of ghostly imagery, there is an unmistakable level of extra bite and edge.

3 STARS, 2023, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 12, 2023A Haunting in Venice, Kenneth BranaghComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Pod Generation

Instead of tail-spinning into potential wickedness and thornier debates, The Pod Generation remains focused on the fluid drama held by its two extremely solid actors. In lesser talented hands, the idea of watching a pair of performers like Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor trying to lug around a strapped prop, emote parental feelings to a big egg-shaped device, or explain themselves to narrating AI would be ludicrous and even laughable. Instead, these two are up to the task.

2023, 3 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 17, 2023Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Shortcomings

Many romantic comedies skew heavily to presenting the female perspective. Most of those movies are built to follow a woman’s plight to get away from the wrong partner and find the right one. We side with her, cheer on her actions, and sneer at the suitors. In a unique way, Shortcomings is different. This one stays on the bad partner and, for that, it has a little extra engrossment going for it.

2023, 3 STARS, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 9, 2023Randall Park, Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola, Ally Maki, ShortcomingsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Oppenheimer

Even with all of its impressive pomp and noise, nothing dramatically radioactive is going to ping your internal Geiger counter higher than a nominal level. And that, like Dunkirk and Tenet before this, is another missed opportunity from one of the best filmmakers in the industry. There’s a pair of lines offered to our main character in Oppenheimer that mirror some of the pushback analysis to Nolan’s good standing. They read, “Don’t alienate the only people in the world who understand what you do. You may need them.” The Brit has his hardcore devotees, but he might be losing more of the rest with each exhausting effort.

MOVIE REVIEW: Belle

Belle is a striking new interpretation of Beauty and the Beast that presents that type of barren simplicity to a tale as old as time. With a rustic storytelling scythe, Silicon Beach writer-director Max Gold chops down the tall grass of finery and strips away the usual imperial accouterments. Melding the intimations of fantasy and horror, Belle gets down to the nitty-gritty of the classic saga’s dramatic center and its truthfully terrifying undercurrents.

2023, 3 STARS, Foreign Film, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanJuly 20, 2023Belle, Max GoldComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Tiger Within

This isn’t a movie presenting one day of nice gestures from a well-meaning old man to an off-course kid where all is better. Tiger Within spans several months where even Samuel’s greatest efforts are not a mystical salve for Casey’s personal fractures. Unlike some of the popular mentoring movies, Tiger Within promises no complete transformation because it knows full well no such automatic correction exists. What it can promise is its own best foot forward, and that’s happily plenty.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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