MOVIE REVIEW: Napoleon

Shockingly and woefully, Joaquin Phoenix does not achieve a single one of those aforementioned personality traits of Napoleon Bonaparte to any compelling degree. You read that right– not a single one of them. There’s no sweeping speech destined for an Oscar nomination clip that wins over citizens, soldiers, or us viewers. Big political ideas pop without sparks. The fireworks and cunning strategy never make it off the battlefield, and any legendary swagger is reduced to the snivels of a lazy and insecure cuckold.

2 STARS, 2023, Home Media, Streaming, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanNovember 23, 2023Napoleon, Ridley Scott, Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Apple TV+Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Maestro

To say Bradley Cooper threw himself into his work is an understatement. He is a marvel to behold. The actor was operating with a spot-on imitation of Bernstein’s vocal annunciations, inflections, cadence, and tone. He found all the highs and lows of hubris, profundity, stress, dedication, and talent in front of and behind the camera. Is all of this in Maestro ostentatious hopscotch from Cooper? Probably, but what else would you expect from an energy like working at an insanely masterful level?

2023, 5 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanNovember 23, 2023Maestro, Bradley Cooper, Carey Mulligan, NetflixComment

MOVIE REVIEW: May December

While ambitious as a ripe tangent in borrowing a real-life scandal, the whole shadowing angle of May December overloads what was excessive enough as off-screen history to begin with. Applying a smattering of unlikely kinks and a confounding third act of insecurity swerves sinks the film. Haynes is left with a mood piece of examining taboo with more taboo. and it gets unattractively lost in just that very vibe.

JustWatch adds new lists feature and imports your IMDb lists

The JustWatch Lists feature now offers more than just saving and tracking your favorite movies and TV shows: Users can now create, share & import lists, discover list collections curated by our team and track their TV shows. Browse and save lists from other users or import IMDb lists straight into JustWatch to enhance the lists with the JustWatch feature set.

2023, Column, Home Media, LIST, NEWS, StreamingDon ShanahanNovember 22, 2023Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Killer

Among his peers and contemporaries, David Fincher conveys a commanding control of fluidity that few filmmakers can rival in this day and age. His stringent melding of staging, cinematography, performance outcomes, editing, and music rarely, if ever, stumble or loiter. Fincher’s mise-en-scène is an authority of total precision, arguably second to none. He simply doesn’t miss his marks, which makes The Killer and its propulsive narrative about a rare and fatal mistake so much more fascinating.

2023, 5 STARS, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanNovember 11, 2023The Killer, David Fincher, Tilda Swinton, Netflix, Andrew Kevin WalkerComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Nyad

NYAD is the film adaptation of that incredible feat recounted in Diane’s autobiography Find a Way. Four-time Academy Award nominee Annette Bening is playing the title subject alongside two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster as her friend and coach Bonnie Stoll. This true chronicle lends itself to a sports movie’s narrative flow and swell of dramatic license, yet NYAD was made by a pair of Oscar-winning documentarians– the Free Solo husband-and-wife directorial team of Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin– giving it a purposeful backbone of authenticity to push some of those tropes to the side.

2023, 4 STARS, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanNovember 8, 2023Nyad, Annette Bening, Jodie FosterComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Black White and the Greys

How did this all happen? What can tear apart a marriage? Most folks go straight to the tawdry daytime talk show topics of money and infidelity, neither of which are anywhere close to the catalysts in Black White and the Greys and there’s zero crowd to watch it all go down. Rather, the frost seeping into the cracks of the Grey family lies in a growing divergence of intellectual contrasts and moral conflicts.

MOVIE REVIEW: Fair Play

True to the sharp storytelling adage of “show, don’t tell,” Fair Play from writer-director Chloe Domont heightens its drama with these featured stares because you imagine the thoughts or predicted words before they are performed. Oftentimes, a viewer’s imagination can get riled up even worse than what is shown on-screen. The wallop of that effect is the characters will get their releases, retorts, and replies, but the audience members– short of shouting at the screen or clutching their armchair partner– do not. With sly effectiveness in hanging on every stare between the words, that’s how a movie like Fair Play gets you.

2023, 4 STARS, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanOctober 3, 2023Fair Play, Phoebe Dynevor, Alden Ehrenreich, Chloe Domont, NetflixComment

MOVIE REVIEW: A Million Miles Away

On this remarkable journey, the core always remained on the people more than the spectacle. Call this kind of movie sweet, simple, and old-fashioned, but there’s a dearth of entertaining movies like A Million Miles Away fit for families and classrooms. There’s not a second where this film’s heart is not in the right place, and this school teacher will take these submissions every chance he gets.

MOVIE REVIEW: Dreamin' Wild

Dreamin’ Wild comports itself unlike many other musical biopics. This one is not trying to strap a rocket to the back of its subjects and launch them to superstar heavens in front of massive crowds shining a barrage of spotlights and flashbulbs. That’s not the Emersons’ story whatsoever. As hinted at before, these songs, characterized, again, as a “dream-like symphony to teenhood,” came from an emotional place beyond what was captured on vinyl. Fragile care was needed.

2023, 2022, 4 STARS, Independent Film, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 2, 2023Dreamin' Wild, Casey Affleck, Noah Jupe, Walton GogginsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Suzie Searches

One of the best tricks a caper movie can pull is getting its viewers to root for the criminal. Typically, we’re pining for the righteous downfall, not a lucky escape, from the long arm of the law. Thanks to a very clever and uncommon twist that drops early on, Susie Searches has you, for a good while anyway, shaking your pom-poms and crossing your fingers for the guilty party. Riding that scandalous plot wave makes for an entertaining yarn of dark comedy.

2023, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, Independent FilmDon ShanahanJuly 27, 2023Suzie Searches, Kiersey ClemonsComment

NEWS: "The Flash" Web3 Movie Experience Arrives July 18

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, in partnership with content blockchain pioneer Eluvio, recently announced the next installment of the WB Movieverse with the newest DC superhero film The Flash Web3 Movie Experience, available for preview at https://web3.wb.com and opening for purchase on July 18.

2023, EVENT, Home Media, NEWSDon ShanahanJuly 14, 2023Comment