MOVIE REVIEW: Fall

Sometimes, the simplest premises are all you need, and Scott Mann’s thriller Fall has that going for it in spades. Long has the subgenre of survival thrillers flourished in this area. By ascending a 2,000 foot antenna in the desert (masterfully so in its own perfect teaser trailer), Mann and his co-writer Jonathan Frank have picked a unique and uncomplicated setting. The film’s characters and camera explore its peculiarity and scale. True to its name, Fall’s plot exploits mortal fears and gets creative with the desperate measures people reach to keep kicking and screaming with life.

2022, 4 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 11, 2022Fall, Grace Fulton, Virginia GardnerComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Prey

There is no star-fueled preening on this no-name cast. The body count is patient, yet raised to a frightful level. The kills are often quick and brutal. Prey stays precisely locked into the relentless gear and exciting pace this legendary movie monster threat has long deserved.

2022, 4 STARS, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, TelevisionDon ShanahanAugust 5, 2022Prey, Predator, The Predator, PredatorsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: DC League of Super-Pets

With its buoyant humor and stellar energy, DC League of Super-Pets is the finest pampering treat we’re going to get and it’s a welcome one, even if a treat like this is a tad on the unhealthy side. With no apologies to Joss Whedon, Zack Snyder, or anyone else, it took bringing in a bunch of animal characters, the writers of The LEGO Batman Movie, and shifting to animation to give us the best theatrical Justice League movie we’ve had to date.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Gray Man

Both men are stupendously deadly in their own ways. Seen and unseen pushers and handlers with unreliable agendas have tied hands, and forced ones too, for the repercussions to come. Pit these two men and their motives against each other, and the unpredictability ignites itself in The Gray Man. Wall to wall, the Russos have unleashed what may stand as the best pure action movie of 2022.

MOVIE REVIEW: Press Play

Press Play rightfully roots for our approachable lovers. She’s not a superficial stunner, he’s not an empty stud, and both actors are believably playing their ages, breaking a trend for the usual “summer of young love” subgenre. Clara Rugaard plays this woman, challenged by emotional loss, with a mature strength beyond what is too often the default setting of weepy helplessness. Not to be outmatched, Lewis Pullman balances her with an understated, yet effectual charisma.

2022, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Streaming, 4 STARSDon ShanahanJune 25, 2022Press Play, Lewis Pullman, Clara Rugaard, Lyrica OkanoComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Lightyear

There is a tremendous dichotomy of thought and talk amid Pixar’s Lightyear. Within the movie, we are granted a dramatic hero truer than the memorable action figure caricature we have come to cherish playing alongside other toys. This beefier Buzz Lightyear may still be narrating to himself, but his talk expresses strong emotions and virtuous desires more than push-button quips. He is his own man, not a packaged program of settings and market research.

2022, 4 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanJune 13, 2022Lightyear, Toy StoryComment

SHORT FILM REVIEW: Amongst the Ashes

Amongst the Ashes is unshy to place this candid-yet-meaningful conversation in a location many will find morbid and backs the walk-and-talk with a serene electronic score from Murmur Studio. In doing so, writer and director Matthew Weinstein challenges the audience to find their heart-to-heart mojo from a darker place, no matter the lush sunshine and exquisite wide shot selections captured on camera by director of photography Austin Vinas. Thanks to patient reveals of mindsets among the two actors and the shared time to see their interplay bond further, the finished short film succeeds in dramatic pull.

2022, 4 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, SHORT FILMSDon ShanahanJune 2, 2022Amongst the Ashes, Matthew WeinsteinComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Time Capsule

Injecting science fiction into a story can be a bit of a magic wand. Slick futuristic plot devices can make a few “what if” and “would-coulda-shoulda” dreams come true with a figurative wave of a hand or taps on a screenwriter’s keyboard. Nevertheless, that kind of intellectual escapism in movies will always tantalize. Embracing a quaint romance with heady consequences, The Time Capsule flicks its wrist for a little magic without sacrificing the seriousness of its premise’s implications.

2022, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, 4 STARSDon ShanahanMay 30, 2022The Time Capsule, Brianna Hildebrand, Todd GrinnellComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Top Gun: Maverick

This gravity of consequence, importance, muscle, and heritage permeates every airspace of Top Gun: Maverick. Updated for a contemporary environment, the raw machismo is remodeled to match the progressive excellence and fortitude demanded of pilots today. The days of Marlboro Man-level cowboy pilots are virtually over– all save one: Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, played by, as many are calling “the last real movie star,” Tom Cruise.

2022, 4 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanMay 24, 2022Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick, Tom CruiseComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Foxhole

By observantly depicting three wars from three different centuries using the same troupe of actors, Foxhole filmmaker Jack Fessenden holds a multi-faceted mirror up to the humanity and mortality of war. His sophomore feature film questions if the causes have or have not changed when it comes to those two pillars. The way he measures that is within the soldiers themselves when placed in their most confined circumstances.

2022, 4 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanMay 13, 2022Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Marvelous and the Black Hole

Serendipitously so, the opposite becomes the case. That line, among many others that follow, could sneakily summarize the FilmRise Sundance darling Marvelous and the Black Hole. Little wonders and big feelings percolate, intersect, smear, and overwhelm a collection of very unique yet relatable people in this film, and the effects could not be more touching and soul-stirring. For folks willing to seek it out in limited theaters, a rewarding hidden gem awaits you.

MOVIE REVIEW: Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood

Written and directed with a galaxy’s worth of love by Richard Linklater, Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood may be one of the most rich and endearing “back in my day” yarns you will ever find. The proud Texas filmmaker has long embraced time capsule motifs and his suburban upbringing throughout his career. Bringing back his layover rotoscope animation style, Linklaker presents the point of view of a pre-teen daydreamer during 1969, one of the most influential years in American history.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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