MOVIE REVIEW: Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

Maybe there’s a little sizzle to the Hutt name and legacy attached to The Mandalorian and Grogu, but, honestly, not much of this premise and setup feels any better than, say, three episodes of the previous television show itself. As it stands, there’s no threatening cause or higher evil in play or looming above this fray. While this promotion from the small screen to the big one fashions itself as the beginning of a new chapter for these beloved characters, not much storytelling or mythical consequence comes of this big debut.

MOVIE REVIEW: Magic Hour

The seismic disclosure recolors the sentiment, setting, and stakes of Magic Hour instantly. Marshall and Erin’s mother (fellow treasure and TV vet Susan Sullivan) are doing their best to provide Erin with this remote getaway of calm solace and granted space. Other people enter Magic Hour to guide Erin through her pain, but the one figure she’s responding to and divulging her worries to the most remains the present spectre of Charlie.

2025, 2026, 3 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanMay 15, 2026Magic Hour, Daveed Diggs, Katie Aselton, Brad Garrett, Mark DuplassComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Michael

Once again, Michael makes its artistic (and commercial) decision to remember the time the world fell in love with a child star elevating to become a one-of-a-kind legend. This film should be allowed to shine on its own merits and entertainment value in recapturing the performing art and lasting influences that still captivate the masses 17 years after the icon’s passing.

MOVIE REVIEW: You, Me & Tuscany

You, Me & Tuscany is an unashamedly female-gaze romantic comedy, and there is nothing wrong with that. Borrowing all the necessary tropes of the genre, it knows exactly what its audience wants to see. All it takes is one glimpse at the attractively appetizing Regé-Jean Page, whether you catch him on the poster or wait until his introduction in the movie, and everything about the gaze, all of a sudden, makes obvious sense.

2026, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanApril 8, 2026You Me & Tuscany, Rege-Jean Page, Halle Bailey, Kat CoiroComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Watching Mr. Pearson

Their competing attitudes of care are warranted, but take away from the cinematic possibilities of the surreal and existential, like that aforementioned billiards scene. Through all the external squabbling around him, the impressive lead performance of Hugo Armstrong shines. Sam Bullington rightfully steals his share of the spotlight, but the gravitational weight of Watching Mr. Pearson always moves through Armstrong.

2026, 3 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanApril 7, 2026Watching Mr. Pearson, Hugo ArmstrongComment

MOVIE REVIEW: A Love Like This

Without that type of dramatic weight that pushes harder than a liar’s loose regret, the most performance range we get out of Emanuelle Chriqui and Hayes MacArthur is a minor shift and transformation towards a balanced plane of apology when disagreements create a verbal blow-up. The pain registers differently between the two as the reservation clock is running out.

2025, 2026, 3 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanApril 2, 2026A Love Like This, Emanuelle Chriqui, Hayes MacArthurComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Fantasy Life

Some of the best acting moments in any given film can happen without dialogue. A facial expression or a piece of body language can mean as much as a multi-page monologue. Those performers who can nail that moment are onto something special in their roles. When possible, Fantasy Life, from writer-director-star Matthew Shear, seeks to make the most of those wordless character statements.

2025, 2026, 3 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanMarch 23, 2026Fantasy Life, Amanda Peet, Matthew Shears, Alessandro NivolaComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Monument

What is more important: the creation or the creator? While we could open that very debate to a movie and its director—especially this one returning to the director’s chair for his first feature in a tumultuous eight years—this film focuses on the field of architecture. So, more specifically, does the created structure matter more than the artist who conceived the design?

2026, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanMarch 19, 2026Monument, Bryan Singer, Joseph Mazzello, Jon VoightComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Storm Rider: Legend of Hammerhead

In Storm Rider: Legend of Hammerhead, you’ve got muscular, heavy-metal boats racing for survival through surf laced with dazzling electrical bolts dropping from the sky. That doesn’t have to be entirely serious. Swash that buckle up a bit and squeeze some more color and courage out of this spectacle.

MOVIE REVIEW: For Worse

Sometimes, the low point of a screw-up is the necessary springboard and not the “I told you so” gotcha moment. When that clarity is found in For Worse, it’s treated more as confirmation than a delayed epiphany, which plays truer to life than orchestrated movie moments that plant those revelations in grandiose gestures and climaxes.

MOVIE REVIEW: Last Ride

That positive togetherness among solid friends is your stamped answer to Lesson #2. The small yet serious life-and-death situation does not need an extra roller coaster. This is a keen balance in a film that is rightly not trying to create pitfalls to rattle cinematic seismometers for the action junkies because the wisening emotions displayed are more than enough.

MOVIE REVIEW: Signing Tony Raymond

Clever comeuppance is not the same as legitimate consequences, and that’s where the stiff reality of real-life outside the dramedy movie crashes the party. Because Signing Tony Raymond hops back and forth between the sordid and the sincere without full potency for one or the other, the cinematic takedown of college football recruitment practices is half-strength, at best.