MOVIE REVIEW: Marshall

Can you learn about a popular band by listening to their B-sides instead of their greatest hits? Can you get a sense of the brilliance within a writer from their early drafts and not their published masterpieces? Can you spot the traits of a future Hall of Fame sports legend solely by their work in college or the minor leagues before the professional ranks? The answer to each is quite likely the same: sometimes, but not always. Tally one in the sometimes column for Reginald Hudlin’s Marshall and its biographical podium choice.

MOVIE REVIEW: Our Souls at Night

Even from a different generation than the present day, you can’t get more Hollywood than Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. Both are emeritus stars of Tinseltown royalty on multiple levels, respected and celebrated as award-winning performers, icons of style, sex symbols, and vigilant political personas off-screen. To see the two of them together again, for the fifth time and the first time in 38 years in Our Souls at Night, is a revitalizing treat unto itself, but to see their shared film be staunchly non-Hollywood in stature is even more refreshing.

MOVIE REVIEW: Blade Runner 2049

To get people talking about a film, or better yet keep them talking about it, storytellers and filmmakers can choose one of two extremes to ensure conversation. The film can have everything to say, or it can have nothing to say. Either route creates captivating and immeasurable levels of ambiguity that are irresistible for near-infinite discourse. The vagueness, obscurity, and uncertainty were driving forces that made 1982’s Blade Runner an initially maligned vision that grew to become a revered science fiction classic. The power of ambiguity strikes again with its long-distance sequel.

2017, 4 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanOctober 6, 2017AMC River East 21Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Te Ata

Not all actors and actresses are motivated by fame and profit. Some are in it for the performance and chance to share culture through an artistic medium. Before the hey-day of cinema, one such actress captured the fascination of an audience higher than any Hollywood premiere and did so as an ostracized minority. Better yourself with a slice of history to learn about Mary Frances Thompson, or, as she was called on stage, Te Ata.

MOVIE REVIEW: Emerald City

I know it’s the clickbait haven of Buzzfeed, but this list of jobs well-known celebrities had before they hit it big is pretty humbling and eye-opening at the same time. Once the millions roll in and we see the red carpets and flash bulbs, we forget the lucky breaks and hard work it took to get there, and that for every one of those matinee idols a thousand never make it. Upon seeing Emerald City at the 3rd annual Irish American Movie Hooley, I’ll gladly raise my glass in hopes that Colin Broderick’s minimum wage days are over.

MOVIE REVIEW: American Made

You know the drill of the typical “so unbelievable it has to be true” cinematic crime biography of a roguish anti-hero. The self-narrated humble beginnings give way to the zeal of daring accomplishment leading to wealthy illegal success, a rise to power, a peak of over-inflation, and the long arm of the law catching up to cause a fall from grace and comeuppance. However, the propeller that makes this jet-set ride swoop with showmanship is the dashing presence of Tom Cruise.

2017, 4 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 28, 2017Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Stronger

Diametric to its title, the core of Stronger’s life after trauma chronicles a venerating angle applied to the “Boston Strong” nature with little melodrama. This is director David Gordon Green’s best film to date, easily surpassing the fad success of Pineapple Express. Stronger’s touching tone carries unmistakable courage and inspires an unshakeable stir of appreciation.

2017, 4 STARS, Film Festival, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 22, 2017Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Battle of the Sexes

Reflecting on the past, Battle of the Sexes recounts a tremendously positive turning point in women’s sports. Drawing parallels to the present, the film also stands tall as a pertinent message film where one can compare the amount of progress towards gender equality in 44 years. Injecting earnest drama and profundity into the tried-and-true sports movie formula, directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton have crafted a gratifying yarn packed with contagious enthusiasm.

2017, 4 STARS, MOVIE REVIEW, Film FestivalDon ShanahanSeptember 21, 2017Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Crown Heights

Director Matt Ruskin’s Crown Heights presents a true story incarceration as it happened to an innocent man. Just when you think two undue years awaiting trial are shameful enough, it turns into twenty over the course of four presidencies and 99 tidy minutes. To tell the story of Colin Warner is to tell a story shared by too many thousands of other wrongfully incarcerated people within the U.S. prison system.

SHORT FILM REVIEW: The Other Place

Dashes of kink and horror mix within Lee Amir-Cohen to create moments of shock and heat shared with Amanda Maddox in the short film The Other Place. The star, who also writes and directs this short, has crafted something creepily captivating in front of and behind the camera. Contracted properly as a short film that leaves you wanting more, this shot glass of venom is a properly measured jolt.

MOVIE REVIEW: Logan Lucky

The buzzing North Carolina public within the film Logan Lucky dub the central robbery a “hillbilly heist” and an “Ocean’s 7-11” perpetrated by “redneck robbers” and “Hee Haw heroes.” With diegetic puns like those being thrown around, how could you not be entertained by Steven Soderbergh’s first feature film in four years? It’s almost an invitation to pile on. How does “clodhopper caper” sound? What about “Podunk pilfering” or “backwoods buffoonery?” I’ll settle for “hayseed hijinks.”

MOVIE REVIEW: Wind River

Through every snowflake and gunshot, Taylor Sheridan cuts to the marrow and keeps Wind River firmly on track with its layered stages of discovery. Tighter than Hell or High Water and more humane than Sicario, this film creates a tone of toughness balanced adroitly by human realities occurring in a dangerous place with a different set of rules. The end result is a highly engrossing mystery with the edge we have come to appreciate and admire from Sheridan.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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