Getting swept up in the stylish pageantry, big or small, of a wedding grabs audiences consistently and well. Curiously, My Mother’s Wedding unfurls as a dramedy where the nuptials in question might be the most inconsequential part of the movie. That’s not a bad thing, as it has happened before in celebrated wedding movies, so long as the film has more to say or is interesting elsewhere. Actress Kristen Scott Thomas’s directorial debut generously tries its hand at offering more than just pure ceremony.

MOVIE REVIEW: Shoshana

As a whole, Michael Winterbottom took on a very difficult slice of history, with many facets and fractures that pit “our land” versus “promised land,” and chose an observant path over a declarative one. In one regard against that arms-length of safety, more terse politics were possible, and probably preferred with this many decades of reflection since the Palenstinian Revolution. The decision not over-project is understandable.

MOVIE REVIEW: She Rides Shotgun

She Rides Shotgun puts these two through hell with slivers of hope pushing them to carry on. The connection built through the close quarters performances of Ana Sophia Heger and Taron Egerton to lift that sense of drama is exceptional. The camera rarely leaves Heger, making the point of view one of fragility, callousing over with experiences of toughness.

2025, 4 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanJuly 30, 2025She Rides Shotgun, Taron EgertonComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Four Letters of Love

Throughout Four Letters of Love, two 1970s families in Ireland—one living on a remote western island and another from a more urban city home—experience difficult roads of distressing life events. Between them, there’s a drastic career change, the transition to a new school, future career uncertainty, parental abandonment, a few cases of writer’s block and artist’s block, relationship woes and competing affections before marriage, parental approval of their children’s paths, a handicapping injury, and two losses of parents and spouses.

MOVIE REVIEW: Finally Dawn

Finally Dawn hinges on the collision between fandom and stardom. Even being set far before today’s times of social media-driven celebrity access and a massive cycle of multi-pronged tabloid coverage, the matinee stars of cinema still carried a hold over awestruck commoners. Their mere public presence added to their legend. Finally Dawn grants a fan a night with her idols, a scenario that radiates with potential dream fulfillment.

MOVIE REVIEW: Eternal

When done well, the emotional catharsis of human stories within peril can be just as impactful as the escapism and heroics, all without sacrificing the heady science fiction of the premise. The Danish film Eternal, enjoying a limited theatrical release after a run on the festival circuit, has this particular sort of ambitious aim.

2023, 2025, Foreign Film, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, 3 STARSDon ShanahanJuly 10, 2025EternalComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Daniela Forever

The hypothetical consideration of time traveling for love, even in this medically induced manner of Daniela Forever, carries an instant appeal. That commonality of challenging the human condition of mortality in favor of romance has tickled our brains and pulled our heartstrings before in movies, big and small.

2025, 2024, 3 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanJuly 9, 2025Daniela Forever, Henry GoldingComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Stealing Pulp Fiction

Homage was clearly the goal of Danny Turkiewicz with Stealing Pulp Fiction. Matching Tarantino, our two leads of Rudnitsky and Soni are a mismatched pair of buddies with loser exteriors and ambitious interiors with their own acronym-filled lingo and hangout vibe. Jonathan and Steve are a pair classic QT chatty Cathys who incessantly talk and finish each other’s sentence. Choosing some easy traits to match, the movie is edited into several titled chapter sections, includes similar musical cues, and emulates some of the framing and slow-motion camera moves of Quentin’s motifs and techniques.

MOVIE REVIEW: Familiar Touch

Filming for Familiar Touch was done in collaboration with the residents and staff of Villa Gardens Continuing Care Retirement Community in New York. Backed by casting agent Betsy Fippinger (Eighth Grade and Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret), 67 residents, 13 staff members, and 12 caregiving and geriatrician consultants were credited for their involvement in making the movie, granting a tangible and uplifting authenticity that we’re being shown a positive standard of care and not an entirely sugarcoated movie version, just to perk up a plot with conflict.

MOVIE REVIEW: Thirsty

In the central performance of Thirsty, Jamie Neumann lays this character bare. In each scene representing a defining choice—whether it’s a buoyant stump moment impressing the gathered public or a privately tormented decision—the actress shows emotional mettle that is tangible, mature, and impressive. Harsher truths and consequences rightfully burn here.

MOVIE REVIEW: Nora

Amid all the pressures she puts on herself to be a responsible mom, flexing artistic muscles and sparking the creative synapses of music creates a new balance in Nora’s life. It’s safe to say every parent watching Nora needs to carve out some self-care time in their schedules to do their own just-for-you enrichment activity, whatever it may be.

2025, 3 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanMay 23, 2025Nora, Anna CampbellComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Kiss

The Kiss (Kysset), the most recent film from Oscar-winning Danish director Bille August, a two-time Palme d’Or recipient, has finally arrived in limited theaters for North American audiences. Set during the onset of World War I in August’s native country of Denmark, The Kiss is adapted from novelist Stefan Zweig’s 1939 book Beware of Pity. Thematically, that titular emotion of pity from the source material courses through this film’s every vein.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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