MOVIE REVIEW: The Post

The Post feels like Spielberg painting by numbers, continuing a bit of a downward trend for the filmmaker. This was accomplished because it was easy, didn’t require a rush, and still cost a sizable $50 million, not because a director was shedding trappings to do a rough and raw film. The Post is a highly polished quality story gift-wrapped to Spielberg and completed with a precision that is pleasing and purposeful. It is effective, but not affecting or truly but not truly demanding for a director, ensemble, and creative team of this caliber.

2017, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanDecember 20, 2017AMC River East 21Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Throw out all of the Star Wars fan theories you’ve read or heard in the last two years. Ignore all of the online noise and irresponsible think piece editorials that have piled up on the web since Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Most importantly, relinquish whatever warped and selfish expectations that have been formulated by the blitz of marketing buzz. Star Wars: The Last Jedi takes its mountain of hype and shoves it away to make something nonconformist and wholly compelling in quite possibly the richest and most expressive entry of the storied franchise.

2017, 4 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEW, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 12, 2017Dolby ATMOS at AMC River East 21Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Justice League

Justice League comes across like attempted course correction done on that Etch-a-Sketch. The artist, or artists in this case, are trying to retrace old paths and smooth over past missteps with redrawn swirls, lighter hues, and a fluffy cover-up we call comedy. That effort on the cinematic Etch-a-Sketch indeed changes the initial picture, but only after unnecessarily tedious effort and some remaining messy results.

2017, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEW, 2 STARSDon ShanahanNovember 15, 2017AMC River East 21Justice League, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Blueprint, DCEU, DC Extended Universe, DC Comics, DC Universe, DC, Etch-a-Sketch, 2017, 2017 Holiday Films, Etch A Sketch, Buddy the Elf, Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Ben Affleck, Batman, The Batman, Ciarin Hinds, Steppenwolf, Apokolips, Mother Boxes, Man of Steel, Bruce Wayne, Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, The Flash, Barry Allen, Arthur Curry, Aquaman, Jason Momoa, Victor Stone, Cyborg, Ray Fisher, Jeremey Irons, Alfred Pennyworth, Lois Lane, Amy Adams, Commissioner Gordon, J.K. Simmons, Suicide Squad, James Wan, Henry Cavill, Victor Frankenstein, Fabian Wagner, Danny Elfman, Spider-Man, Hans Zimmer, reshoots, Zack Snyder, Joss Whedon, movie critic, film critic, movie review, film review, movie commentary, film commentary, life lessons, life lessons from movies, life lessons from film, life lessons from films, Don Shanahan, Donald Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson Comments

MOVIE REVIEW: Mr. Roosevelt

This entire film is a head-turning and striking first impression if you missed Noel’s single season on Saturday Night Live four years ago. As aforementioned with a passion project like this, you beg and wonder how autobiographical a wild story like this has to be. No matter if it’s true or entirely created, the appreciation measures the heavily positive same. The jokes come from all angles and hit with every effect from belly laugh to full cringe.

2017, 4 STARS, Chicago Film Festival, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanNovember 3, 2017Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Wonderstruck

Haynes’ Wonderstruck still evokes true and impassioned power. The film strides within a sensitive middle ground of approachable and praiseworthy quaintness in addressing difficult youthful challenges and emotions. The effect is a grown-up experience audiences can, and should, appreciate compared to the mindless popcorn fluff and weightless distractions studio shovel into the PG marketplace. If a new definition could be created for the term “wonderstruck,” it would read “rapt attention.”

2017, 5 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanOctober 26, 2017Landmark Century Centre CinemasWonderstruck, Oakes Fegley, Millicent Simmonds, Todd HaynesComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Liquid Truth

The discolored and dingy tile grout at the bottom of a swimming pool and the imagery effect of rippling water seen under the surface bending the images above perspective starkly symbolize the many warped dimensions of Liquid Truth. The truth in the title is as slippery as the water in director Caroline Jabor’s simmering social commentary. The film may be foreign from Brazil, but it typifies all too many social media ills that would explode in a parallel fashion here in this country.

2017, 4 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, Foreign Film, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social MediaDon ShanahanOctober 23, 2017The 53rd Chicago International Film Festival2017, Brazil, Liquid Truth, helicopter parenting, WeAreTeachers, Dr. Carolyn Daitch, Lucas Paraizo, Best Narrative Film, Rio International Film Festival, Aos Teus Olhos, Audience Award, Malu Galli, Stella Rabello, Luiz Felipe Mello, Marco Ricca, Facebook, Instagram, Luisa Arraes, Daniel de Oliviera, 53rd Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, World Cinema, Cinema of the Americas, Caroline Jabor, film review, movie review, foreign film, Foreign films, foreign langugage film, foreign films, life lessons from foreign films, movie critic, film critic, CIFCC, CIFF, #CIFCCattheCIFF, social commentary, social media platform, social media, life lessons, life lessons from movies, independent film, independent films, films of Brazil, film festival, Festival review, Festival coverage, festival preview, movie reviews, movie commentary, film commentary, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Lisa TrifoneComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Chasing the Blues

Chasing the Blues is a dark comedy through and through. Director Scott Smith and his co-writer Kevin Guifoile crafted an engaging yarn of hijinks and hilarity. Their narrative might feel like something out of a Coen brothers rough draft, but this film sides with a far less gonzo approach that suits its shrewder stature. Like the musical genre at its core, patient storytelling is at the forefront. Could it use a stiffer punch or two? Maybe, but then it wouldn’t be the blue and not everything has to be shock cinema. Waiting for the payoff in this tidy 77-minute film is an easy and worthwhile short hike to climb.

2017, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Video on DemandDon ShanahanOctober 18, 201753rd Chicago International Film Festival2017, U.S. Indies, Chicago International Film Festival, 53rd Chicago International Film Festival, CIFF, CIFCC, independent films, independent film, Chasing the Blues, Scott Smith, Jimmie Kane Baldwin, Cicero Records, Chicago, Chicago films, The Royal Tenenbaums, Grant Rosenmeyer, Chelsea Tavares, Anna Maria Horsford, Amen, Ronald L. Conner, Kevin Guilfoile, blues, blues music, movie review, film review, festival preview, film festival, Festival coverage, Festival review, movie commentary, film commentary, music, movie critic, film critic, AMC River East 21, press credentials, life lessons, life lessons from movies, life lessons from film, life lessons from films, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Donald Shanahan, Don ShanahanComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Lucky

In each winsome second, Lucky continuously unearths affecting ways of making cantankerous endearing. With grizzled resolve and humor as dry as the desert he walks in, the late Harry Dean Stanton personifies the charm culled from the crotchety put on display in John Carroll Lynch’s straight-shooting film. Far from any Grumpy Old Men folly and possessing a hidden heart twice the size of Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, meet a lovable unlovable asshole that flourishes to galvanize unexpected wholesomeness from the prickliest of cacti.

2017, 5 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanOctober 6, 2017Music Box TheatreComment

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.

2017, 4 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Video on DemandDon ShanahanOctober 3, 20172017, independent film, indie film, historical drama, Te Ata, Mary Frances Thompson, Q'orianka Kilcher, Chickasaw, Oklahoma, The New World, Gil Birmingham, Wind River, Hell of High Water, Douglas Johnston, Dances With Wolves, Graham Greene, Three Arts Club, New York City, Broadway, Mackenzie Austin, Clyde Fisher, Eleanor Roosevely, Jeannie Barbour, Esther Luttrell, First Encounters, Lithium Springs, Nathan Frankowski, To Write Love on Her Arms, film critic, movie critic, film review, movie review, film commentary, movie commentary, life lessons, life lessons from films, life lessons from movues, life lessons from gilm, life lessons from film, VOD, Video on Demand, Video On Demand, Don Shanahan, Donald Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson, CIFCC, Falco InkComment

MOVIE REVIEW: mother!

There is extreme thematic and visceral content in mother! that will rattle even the toughest souls. Metaphorical imagery and symbolism are everywhere, and the number of literal and figurative interpretations of what is implicitly or explicitly transpiring can kill as many brain cells as it multiplies. The film begs endless questioning. Surviving and absorbing the film becomes a maddening experience. In the end, what is evident to celebrate is also categorically impossible to fully condone.

2017, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Film Festival, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 13, 2017AMC River East 212017, 2017 Fall Movies, mother!, Mother, Mother!, Darren Aronofsky, Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfieffer, Domhnall Gleason, Brian Gleeson, Hunger Games franchise, Philip Messina, Matthew Libatique, Oscar winners, Rosemary's Baby, The End of the World, Skeeter Davis, Patti Smith, film review, movie review, advance movie review, film commentary, movie commentary, Hollywood commentary, social commentary, movie critic, film critic, CIFCC, Venice Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, film festival, Black Swan, Noah, life lessons, life lessons from movies, life lessons from film, Mindfuck, Mindfuck movies, Mindfuck films, psychological thriller, horror, Don Shanahan, Donald Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Chicago Independent Film Critics CircleComment

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: Detroit

For a film like Detroit with difficult content thrust upon audiences to endure, this is not a place to seek entertainment or joy. Instead, Detroit is a challenge of cementing respect and achieving an empathy deeper than basic sympathy. Step into a beyond-cautionary tale of history that school books skipped or have forgotten. Let Detroit stir and inspire conversations. Let the emotions, good and bad, come and talk about them.