MOVIE REVIEW: Moana

She may wear a dress and have an animal sidekick, but don’t you dare call Moana a “princess.” The enterprising titular “chieftain’s daughter” is a breezy breath of warm Pacific air surging through a Mouse House built on castles, corsets, and crowns. Promoting powerhouse diversity and pushing away the trappings of romance, “Moana” is a progressive step from Walt Disney Animation Studios carrying wonderful messages for young girls in a Millennial day-and-age that is too often obsessed with body image and glamour.

MOVIE REVIEW: Arrival

To reveal more of the emotional and scientific obstacle course would take away from the engrossing experience to be had by “Arrival.” This is the anti-”Independence Day,” so don’t expect a populist romp. Instead, open your mind to a stimulating and provocative mindbender that may require more than one viewing to grasp and appreciate. The trippy events unfolding out of the screenplay tangle the puppeteer’s strings and play with narrative and filmmaking forces few are daring enough, and smart enough, to wield.

MOVIE REVIEW: Middle Man

52nd Chicago International Film Festival U.S. Indies entry and presentation

“Middle Man” blends an acidic edge with showy panache that bleeds from every character, large and small. Credit the devious fun of Crowley for the snappy dialogue that pops from each character. The comedy is clever instead of coarse while maintaining its darkness. Nearly every speaking part of this colorful cast of funhouse mirrors nails a zinger or two that fits right into that line of taste.

MOVIE REVIEW: In a Valley of Violence

“In a Valley of Violence” lives up to the promised bloodshed suggested by its title and spins its own brand of tension and, best of all, a frank and bone-dry humor that blows into the whole film. You will either love the comedic edge or find it a distraction from the revenge. There is an undeniable panache to the absurdity that makes the film an absolute hoot. This is the giddy Western Quentin Tarantino wishes he could make while he wastes six hours of our time and stretched disbelief.

MOVIE REVIEW: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

Batman has evolved, but the long-standing love for that old TV show has only sweetened. The new WB Animation entry “Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders” unlocks a time capsule and reminds us why Batman can be just as fun when he’s not brooding and sulking. With the triumphant returns of original cast members Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar reassuming their Batman, Robin, and Catwoman mantles as voice actors, this new film possess audible and visual treats to behold.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Birth of a Nation

Circling back to the “timely” label, the film bears the designation in equally positive and negative connotations, depending of your personal capacity. Consider “The Birth of a Nation” to be the antithesis to “Selma” two years ago. This film’s depiction of violent retaliation reverberates far differently than Martin Luther King’s example of nonviolence. Audiences will wrestle with that polar opposite being empowering or troubling in justification.

MOVIE REVIEW: Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete)

All eyes are on the hotly anticipated live-action "re-imagining" of Walt Disney Pictures' enormously successful "Beauty and the Beast" from 1991. That March 2017 sure-fire blockbuster will garner tremendous attention in its attempt to honor the animated Best Picture Oscar nominee and double Academy Award winner. In the meantime, the fairy tale's home country of France throws down its own gauntlet to give Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's 1740 original story and Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's abridged 1756 standard the grand, epic big-screen treatment it warrants. Let's just say the French sure know what they are doing.

MOVIE REVIEW: Reparation

Building domestic suspense in poignant fashion and shifting between three eras, “Reparation” examines potent human flaws and plants them in small-town America with real-life consequences. This film doesn’t need a grandiose battlefield saga of hidden heroism to be the catalyst. This isn’t “American Sniper” and glossy hero worship. “Reparation” welcomes more intimate and jagged complications with authentic down-home realism and charm.

MOVIE REVIEW: Sully

Celebrated director Clint Eastwood is no stranger to biopics based on historical figures, making him an ardent practitioner of hero worship. Because the 86-year-old, four-time Oscar winner classically directs with a soft hand and a comely tone, his brand of adoration consistently lands on the veneration half of the definition. Combining forces for the first time with another hero worship professional in All-American leading man Tom Hanks on “Sully,” you have double the cinematic potential of cherished devotion.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Sea of Trees

Cloying as it may be to some, “The Sea of Trees” still contains a poetry and a message of forced reflection and vitality with incorporeal nudges. These are touchy musings, for sure. Audiences that have the reflective capacity for tapping into those feelings and fears will appreciate this effort and the dedicated performances. Close-hearted and discomforted cynics that do not will flatly dismiss it instead and tell you (and it) to keep your feelings to yourself. This writer is openly capable of being in the first audience welcoming the deep thoughts.

MOVIE REVIEW: Hands of Stone

To use a boxing term favored by commentators, “Hands of Stone” has a “big fight feel.” The ferocious energy and volatile personality of Edgar Ramirez’s Roberto Duran emits enough heat to liquefy lead. Add in the smooth and suave Sugar Ray Leonard, played by a game Usher Raymond IV, as the titan to topple and the effect is multiplied. “Hands of Stone” doesn’t break any new ground, but it operates with low mistakes to be a step above competent and solid within the sports film genre.

DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World

Leave it to renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog to hit you with a buffet's worth of food for thought. His musings on the origins of the internet and its growing ramifications, both positive and negative, on this modern world are sternly served in his new documentary "Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World." Scintillating one minute and sobering the next, this film is required viewing for anyone who has seen how far we've come with connectivity and wonders fearfully just how high this Icarus of technology can fly towards the Sun before it melts and crashes back to Earth.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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