Posts in Chicago Film Festival
MOVIE REVIEW: Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete)
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.  

Read More
Chicago Film Festival, 2014, 2016, MOVIE REVIEW, 4 STARS, Foreign Film, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanChicago Critics Film Festival, Vincent Cassel, La Belle et la Bete, Christophe Gans, life lessons from movies, Life lessons, Donald Shanahan, movie review, 2016, movie commentary, life lessons from films, French, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Festival coverage, Eduardo Noriega, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Fairy tales, 2014, 2016 Chicago Critics Film Festival, film commentary, Beauty and the Beast, Disney classics, film review, Lea Seydoux, foreign films, life lessons from film, Don Shanahan, Foreign filmsComment
DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World
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. 

Read More
ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Video on Demand, Chicago Film Festival, 4 STARS, DOCUMENTARY REVIEW, 2016Don Shanahandocumentary, Documentary filmmaking, Chicago Film Critics Association, life lessons from movies, DOC10, Donald Shanahan, Life lessons, 2016, documentary commentary, life lessons from films, Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World, life lessons, 2015, documentary review, Internet, DOC10 Film Festival, 2016 Chicago Critics Film Festival, film commentary, Elon Musk, film review, Werner Herzog, Lo and Behold, life lessons from film, Don Shanahan, Chicago Critics Film FestivalComment
MOVIE REVIEW: Little Men
MOVIE REVIEW: Little Men

Celebrated director Ira Sachs channels a shade of William Shakespeare with his latest film "Little Men."  An often-repeated quote from Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" reads "the sins of the father are to be laid upon the children."  Sachs puts a beautiful spin on that notion using modern-day Brooklyn, two struggling families from different backgrounds, and a blossoming friendship characterized by two terrific debuting teen actors.  "Little Men" may be small in scope, but it speaks volumes in repercussions.

Read More
2016, Chicago Film Festival, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Film Festival, MOVIE REVIEW, 3 STARSDon ShanahanMichael Barbieri, Jennifer Ehle, C, life lessons from movies, Donald Shanahan, 2016, film commentary, Ira Sachs, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Pauline Garcia, Theo Taplitz, Talia Balsam, life lessons from films, Festival review, life lessons from film, 2016 Chicago Critics Film Festival, film review, Mauricio Zacharias, Don Shanahan, Dickon Hinchliffe, movie review, Alfred Molina, Chicago Critics Film Festival, Greg Kinner, Life lessons, Little Men, CIFCC, life lessonsComment
DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: Life, Animated
DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: Life, Animated

This website has been moralizing for six years now its central message that "every movie has a lesson."  As an educator, it is something that I firmly believe and stand by with every possible film, good or bad.  I don't think, in all of my years of movie-going, I have ever seen a more real, living and breathing example of the power and magic of my website's theme than in the compelling and emotional new documentary "Life, Animated."  A story like this is why I write.  If that message speaks to you, go find "Life, Animated" immediately.

Read More
5 STARS, 2016, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Chicago Film Festival, DOCUMENTARY REVIEW, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanChicago Critics Film FestivalLife Animated, Owen Suskind, Ron Suskind, Roger Ross Williams, David Teague, Documentary filmmaking, documentary review, documentary commentary, documentary, Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary, Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Chicago Critics Film Festival, Chicago Film Critics Association, CIFCC, CFCA, CCFF, Music Box TheatreComment
ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW: August: Osage County
ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW: August: Osage County

August: Osage County brings an outstanding story peppered with howling laughs and poignant family drama that blend tremendously better than expected.  The film is fantastically acted to make this popular story very absorbing.  This film is tailor-made as a holiday hit-to-be upon its upcoming Christmas weekend release and a sure-fire Oscar contender in many categories come next year.  It is undoubtedly one of the best films of 2013 and will be among this website's "10 Best" of the year.

Read More
"2013 Holiday Movies", "2013", "5 STARS", "Advance Movie Review", "Chicago International Film Festival", "Movie Review", 2013, 5 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Chicago Film Festival, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanChicago, IL, USAComment