CAPSULE REVIEWS: The 53rd Chicago International Film Festival

The 53rd Chicago International FIlm Festival brings over 1,000 films of all genres and sizes to our fair city. There are premieres aplenty, between those making their world, North American, or Chicago debuts. Opening with a red carpet premiere of Marshall, peaking with the centerpiece of Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, and closing with the Oscar contender The Shape of Water from Guillermo del Toro, the 53rd CIFF fills the AMC River East 21 for two weeks. For the fourth year in a row, Every Movie Has a Lesson has been granted press credentials to cover the CIFF and here are my capsule reviews.

2017, CAPSULE REVIEW, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, Foreign Film, Independent Film, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanOctober 24, 2017The 53rd Chicago International Film Festival2017, Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle, Chicago International Film Festival, 53rd Chicago International Film Festival, 53rd CIFF, CIFF, #CIFCCattheCIFF, Opening Night Gala, Opening Night Film, Special Presentations, U.S. Indies, City and State, World Cinema, Cinema of the Americas, Shorts, Marshall, Eman's Movie Reviews, Emmanuel Noisette, Chadwick Boseman, Sterling K. Brown, Jussie Smollett, Marina Squerciati, Reginald Hudlin, red carpet, red carpet coverage, MovieMob, Goodbye Christopher Robin, Simon Curtis, Blueprint, Daryl Wein, Jerod Haynes, Chasing the Blues, Scott Smith, Kevin Guilfoile, Liquid Truth, The Shape of Water, Lady Bird, Caroline Jabor, Daniel de Oliviera, Night Shift, Tunde Adebimpe, Gold Hugo, Gold Hugo AwardComment

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: Loving Vincent

The filmmakers promised Loving Vincent to be nothing you’ve ever seen put to film and they were not lying. The sheer artistry is miraculous where even folded shirts look as dramatic as emoting faces. To call the biographical drama a work of art and astonishing technical achievement would be shameless understatements. The best part of all is the massive wellspring of creativity was thankfully applied to an engaged narrative worthy of the artistry and the legend cast by Vincent Van Gogh

2017, 5 STARS, Independent Film, Foreign Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanOctober 18, 2017Landmark Century Centre Cinemas2017, 2017 Fall Movies, animated films, Best Animated Feature, Loving Vincent, Vincent Van Gogh, Canon D20 camera, Robert Gulaczyk, Auvers-sur-Oise, Dr. Paul Gachet, Jerome Flynn, Saoirse Ronan, Marguerite, Marguerite Gachet, Chris O'Dowd, Douglas Booth, Romeo & Juliet, Lukasz Zal, Ida, Tristan Oliver, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Justyna Wierszynska, Dorota Kobiela, Clint Mansell, The Fountain, Hugh Welchman, Jacek Dehnel, poet laureate, film critic, movie critic, movie review, film review, CIFCC, movie commentary, film commentary, life lessons from animated films, life lessons, life lessons from movies, life lessons from film, life lessons from films, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Lara BogenreifComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Young Offenders

The banter and B.S. traded back and forth between Alex Murphy and Chris Walley is as hysterical as it is pleasurably uncouth. It’s an absolute wonder to realize that The Young Offenders is mutually their first on-camera film roles. Alex and Chris’s chemistry through sarcasm and shared shenanigans feels and looks effortless. Flabbergasted energy blasts out of both of them and it’s a hoot to watch. Seeing the two young actors operate these over-the-top losers with reckless abandon while still injecting a little coming-of-age heart for good measure, makes the film highly entertaining.

2017, 2016, 3 STARS, Chicago Film Festival, Foreign Film, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanOctober 3, 2017Gene Siskel Film Center2017, The Young Offenders, Children's Act of 2001, Urban Dictionary, Knacker, Alex Murphy, Chris Walley, hijinks, Dominic MacHale, Shane Casey, Hilary Rose, Trainspotting, Danny Boyle, Conor MacSweeney, Jock Murphy, Euro, Peter Foott, Irish, Ireland, Ireland films, films set in Ireland, Irish American Movie Hooley, Irish films, Irish-themed films, Irish American films, 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey, Hibernian Transmedia, Movie Hooley, Gene Siskel Film Center, Siskel Film Center, Mike Houlihan, CIFCC, Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle, 3rd annual Irish American Movie Hooley, movie critic, film critic, foreign film, independent film, independent films, heist films, coming of age, movie review, film review, movie commentary, film commentary, Festival coverage, festival preview, closing night, comedy, life lessons, life lessons from film, life lessons from movies, life lessons from films, life lessons from foreign films, Don Shanahan, Donald Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

CAPSULE REVIEWS: The third annual Irish American Movie Hooley

The third annual Irish American Movie Hooley is happening this weekend at the Gene Siskel Film Center from September 29-October 1st. This very writer and website was both lucky and honored to cover this event last year and has again been granted coverage access this year. The event is comprised of three feature films, two of which are directorial debuts, all of whom are making their Chicago premieres. Here are my capsule reviews of the three films. Get your Irish on at the Siskel Film Center this weekend!

PREVIEW: The third annual Irish American Movie Hooley

The Gene Siskel Film Center will host the third annual Irish American Movie Hooley from September 29-October 1st. This year’s event is comprised of three feature films, two of which are directorial debuts, all of whom are making their Chicago premieres. All screenings and events are at the Gene Siskel Film Center. his very writer and website was both lucky and honored to cover this event last year and will again this year. Stay tuned here for future capsule reviews and full reviews.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Villainess

The opening number makes the single-take climax fight with Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde look like a box waltz lesson from an elementary school gym class. The woman is the reckless assassin Sook-hee, played by Ok-bin Kim of Thirst, and the scene ends with a hint of a deranged smile of glee. The Villainess spins with dynamic energy of wanton mayhem and operatic displays of graphic violence when the talking stops and confrontations begin.

MOVIE REVIEW: Viceroy's House

The most superlative aspect of Viceroy’s House and its chronicle of national history for the countries of India and Pakistan is the personal passion behind the project. Bend it Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice director Gurinder Chadha is the granddaughter of family displaced by the largest migration of people in recorded human history that occurred during the Partition of India of seventy years ago. There is an undeniable core of importance and respect present in the film that shows the great care of Chadha and all involved.

2017, 2 STARS, Foreign Film, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 11, 2017Landmark Century Centre Cinemas2017, 2017 Fall Movies, Viceroy's House, Gurinder Chadha, Bend it Like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice, Partition of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Louis Mountbatten, Hugh Bonneville, Gillian Anderson, Lily Travers, Hastings Ismay, Michael Gambon, Jawaharlal Nehru, Tanveer Ghani, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Denzil Smith, Mahatma Ghandi, Neeraj Kabi, Manish Dayal, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Huma Qureshi, Gangs of Wasseypur, Ben Smithard, A.R. Rahman, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Lee Daniels' The Butler, The Butler, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespearean, film review, movie review, film commentary, movie commentary, foreign film, India, World War II, Dominion of India, life lessons, life lessons from film, life lessons from films, life lessons from movies, historical drama, romantic dramas, film critic, movie critic, Don Shanahan, Donald Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis

In a terse 80 minutes, The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis locks its suspenseful build and holds your attention. Open-ended as it is, the film could have employed additional time to hammer its points home and offer a payoff. However, it’s minimal surface and suddenness feels intentional to mirror the mysterious fates that befell so many people of this era. Quietly powerful, the effect and feeling are convincing.

MOVIE REVIEW: Lost in Paris

Lost in Paris is an exceedingly charming ditty of a comedy from the writing, directing, and starring duo of Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon. Three overlapping character-coded chapters follow a wayward character’s pratfalls and screwups through the course of their fateful intersections. Lost in Paris weaves its yarn with clever panache. It’s a surreal jaunt that juggles the cheekily uncouth with the innocently sweet inside its ever-present sense of whimsy.

MOVIE REVIEW: My Cousin Rachel

Roger Michell stiffens his upper lip from his Love, Actually and Notting Hill fare to tackle a costume drama with My Cousin Rachel. Oddly enough, this film can stake a serendipitous claim as the second Michell-directed film about “kissing cousins” after Hyde Park on the Hudson. Unfortunately, more than a little uncomfortable laughter of preposterousness pokes out of this film while trying to portray itself as flowing romantic drama. That’s not going to sweep anyone.

2 STARS, 2017, Foreign Film, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanJune 8, 2017Landmark Century Centre Cinema2017, 2017 Summer Movies, independent films, independent film, foreign films, foreign film, Foreign films, female leads, strong female character, My Cousin Rachel, Sam Clafin, Rachel Weisz, Roger Michell, Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca, The Birds, Rael Jones, Hugh Grant, Me Before You, Hyde Park on the Hudson, Notting Hill, 1952, Olivia de Havilland, Richard Burton, Holliday Grainger, Pierfrancisco Favino, World War Z, The Hunger Games, keep it in the family, film review, movie review, film commentary, movie commentary, life lessons, life lessons from movies, life lessons from film, life lessons from films, Don Shanahan, Donald Shanahan, movie melodramas, melodramas, mystery, costume drama, Chicago Independent Film Critics CircleComment

MOVIE REVIEW: I, Daniel Blake

I, Daniel Blake is unabashedly a “bleeding heart” film on literal and figurative levels. If this was a Hollywood film, it would be overrun with shouted speeches and orchestrational swells trying to manufacture emotional peaks. Fluff like that is unnecessary if you have the right poetic realism, For Loach, that’s second hand and he picks the right soapbox placement and thickness.

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