To Catch a Killer unravels to become one of those manhunt movies where the pursuit is better than the prize at the end. Wild Tales director Damien Szifron provides several platforms for the central law enforcement characters to pontificate the importance of what they are doing to stop the present public menace. The actors squeeze every bit of seriousness they can, and you believe their motivations and intentions. Yet, when To Catch a Killer reaches its climax and it becomes the hidden villain’s turn to reveal their intentions, the suspense shamefully evaporates.

MOVIE REVIEW: One True Loves

One True Loves has one of those paperback novel premises that can only seem to work as a screwball farce or a serious melodrama when brought to the big screen. Wouldn’t you know it, the movie is based on a book from New York Times best-selling author Taylor Jenkins Reid (Daisy Jones and the Six). The novelist was lucky enough to have the opportunity to adapt her own novel with her TV screenwriter husband Alex J. Reid.

MOVIE REVIEW: Paint

There was a measure of true cleverness possible in inserting a throwback maverick character into the present day. Paint wanted to bend a vibe with fiction and flexed too far, to a place where its main character would not survive personally or professionally in the first place. The surrounding characters chipping away at the fraud underneath Carl Nargle– an arc amusingly not all that different from the esteemed Oscar-nominated TAR when you really think about it– exposed nothing we could not already see for ourselves.

2 STARS, 2023, Film Festival, Independent Film, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanApril 7, 2023Paint, Owen Wilson, Michaela Watkins, Brit McAdamsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Air

Director Ben Affleck received Michael Jordan’s blessing and allowed Air to be a whiff at breathing in that legend again, a draw that cannot be discounted. Likewise, folks are coming to see familiar and reliable movie stars like Affleck, Damon, Davis, and Bateman spar. Those curious and poised to watch composures rattled, zingers exchanged, balls busted, and dreams fulfilled get all that and then some in Air.

MOVIE REVIEW: Tetris

Early on in Tetris, Taron Egerton’s main character Henk Rogers shares an admission with his furious boss about why he put himself into greater financial debt to back an unknown video game from The Soviet Union he stumbled upon at a consumer electronics show in Las Vegas. Leaning over and speaking low with clear eyes relaying bewilderment, he talks about seeing those soon-to-be iconic blocks still falling in his dreams hours and days after playing the game. Memories fill Tetris viewers, and they immediately picture the exact same thing.

2023, 4 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanMarch 31, 2023Tetris, Taron Egerton, Jon S. Baird, Apple TV+Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Boston Strangler

As a feature film, Boston Strangler finds itself buried in the massive snowbank of true crime content available. Eager viewers have a buffet of binge-able rabbit holes, available in long and short forms, on dozens of channels and platforms at home. Held up against that docu-drama marketplace, a traditional two-hour fictionalized yarn playing in theaters feels nearly trite and tame by comparison, even if it dabbles with and challenges a theory or two about who really perpetrated these murders.

2023, 3 STARS, MOVIE REVIEW, Home Media, StreamingDon ShanahanMarch 18, 2023Boston Strangler, Kiera Knightley, Matt Ruskin, Carrie CoonComment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: Guest contributor on Natural Transplants talking bald movie characters

Every now and then, I get tabbed as the published film critic to contribute ideas on a movie-related question or topic for other websites. Recently, I feel like I was profiled for a second signature trait of mine. The publishers for NaturalTransplants.com must have seen my social media profile picture featuring a shorn head because they pitched me to name my Top 5 iconic bald movie characters. I’m not kidding when I say that I’ve had that exact list in mind for a while, so I couldn’t resist the assignment.

MEDIA APPEARANCE: Guest on the "Let's Talk About Flix" podcast chatting about "Anaconda"

Through small world happenstance, I’ve come to know hosts Mike Osborn and Curtis Menke of the irreverent and laugh-filled podcast “Let’s Talk About Flix.” They are two college classmates split across Illinois, and I was introduced to them through a high school classmate of mine, who is cousins with Menke. I caught on to them early in their run, and they have been appointment listening ever since. On the side, I recruited them to join the Chicago Indie Critics group that I co-direct. I was honored to be asked on as their first-ever guest for their “guilty pleasures” month. For that excellent theme, I brought them 1997’s Anaconda.

INFOGRAPHIC: New Data Reveals the States that Love Movies the Most

The study was conducted by Japan-101, an online casino guide that acts as a source of information that helps players learn about online casinos, their games, and promotions. It offers tips and reviews to help players make informed decisions.

2023, Home Media, Infographic, Social Media, Editorial, Column, GUEST EDITORIALDon ShanahanMarch 1, 2023Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: 88

Many of those conspiracy theories are precisely outlandish enough for savvy Hollywood screenwriters to find pithy movie premises for an eternity. The truly fun part is that any single theory, with the right spin, could be crafted and played as a either comedic farce or a terrifying thriller with equal entertainment potential. With 88, filmmaker Thomas Ikimi, better known as Eromose, takes a rich conspiracy concept and runs with it.

MOVIE REVIEW: Sharper

Frankly, a polished movie like this one, from the clean sets to the ominous Clint Mansell score, would have been relished in that fondly remembered mid-1990s marketplace of star-driven movies marketed for adults. Mature and malicious while skirting the line with a dash of kink, movies like Sharper don’t get made enough nowadays. Enjoy its casual boldness.

2023, 3 STARS, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanFebruary 10, 2023Sharper, Benjamin Caron, Julianne Moore, Justice Smith, Sebastian StanComment

MOVIE REVIEW: You People

From Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poiter, forward to Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro, and even to the likes of Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac, you’ve seen the interesting proposition of You People and its kind of entertaining clash before. Though it was made in 2021 and bears the label of 2023, You People is about a decade late to its own civics rally. The topicality has come and gone. Kenya Barris’s film arrives almost immediately wrapped in a time capsule, one that few will meaningfully open in years to come without more significance to recognize and remember.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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